Liar's Lips
by KiboChan
Summary: Despite all the happiness and giggles that seemed to surround him, there was something quite repelling about this man... Loki couldn't tell if it was his aura of loneliness or his hideous periwinkle scarf, and at the moment, he didn't really care. This guy was the key to escape and that was all that mattered.
1. Bigger on the Inside

**AN: Hi guys. I know, you're tired of the typical fan girls posting crap like this, right? You're probably thinking "Oh god, why is she doing **_**another **_**crossover?" Whatever, I have no idea if I'm going to work on this fanfic a lot. I really want to, but I just have no idea where this is going to go.**

The darkness of the cell weighed down on him. For the past weeks, months, years-he didn't know for sure how long it had been-this loneliness was all he knew. Not even the feeling of being let go on the edge of the Bifröst could compare to this. Loki was so tired of the tiny little cell they kept him in.

After his attempt to conquer Midgard had miserably failed, he was taken back to Asgard for punishment. They locked him up in chains so tight, he couldn't move his arms. The muzzle still covered his mouth, so he was forced to breathe through his nose all the time. It caused him to constantly feel light-headed. Sleeping wasn't fantastic, either, since the chains constantly pressed against and bruised his sides when he made an attempt to lay down. His cell was extremely small, with a thick wall surrounding it. There were no enters or exits, except through one tiny door through which food and... Erm, other things (which he did not like the process of getting in and out)... were passed through. The only way to even get Loki into the cell was to transport him through the walls with the Tesseract. It didn't take long for Loki to realize there was no getting out of the cell. All he knew at this point was complete silence. His only friend, his only remaining comfort, was the cadence of his slow breathing and the very rare sliding door opening up.

What came next horrified Loki almost to hysteria, and only within a matter of seconds. At first, it was a distant, quiet noise, but it quickly grew in volume. It was the strangest thing he had ever heard... Like a rhythmic whooshing, or a machine breathing. He sharply sucked in breath and held it in suspense. When he first saw a small flash of light, he thought he was finally going crazy. It gone even worse when the flash turned into a large, blue box. It was just appearing out of nowhere, right there, in his teeny little cell. Loki scrunched himself up against the wall to leave barely enough room for it to appear.

When the box finished materializing, Loki felt like he could breathe again. _What the... _His eyes widened like an insect's when a man poked his head out of the box. "Oi, are you Loki?" he asked. Seeming to completely ignore the fact that Loki had a muzzle over his mouth, he sat himself down on the floor next to him. "I got your message. What happened to you?"

No reply. The strange man groaned. "What are you lookin' at me like that for?" He suddenly leaned a lot closer to Loki, who tried to lean away. "You can't talk with that thing on your face, can you? Ah, well, allow me to remedy that." He pulled a glowing stick, not in any way like the one Loki used to use, and started pointing it at the locks on his chains. Loki's mind was racing. After Odin knows how long of loneliness and absolute nothingness, there was suddenly a strange man in a magic blue box that was seriously about to let him go.

After he was free of his chains, the strange man dragged him into his box and shut the door. Loki's eyes widened in wonder. There were many odd things in that box, certainly not like anything he'd ever seen. The room had a faint orange glow, with bright blues and greens emanating from a tall column in the center of the large room.

"What do you think of it?" the strange man said as he peered at Loki from behind his half-moon glasses. He brushed curly brunette hair out of his large brown eyes before looking back down at his work station. "Lemme get my lovely little box sorted out real quick. I'll get the mouth thingy off, I promise." He looked up and grinned mischievously. "Unless you bite..?" Loki shook his head, and the strange man cackled.

Loki cautiously made his way toward the man. He was hunched over a small box with what looked like speakers in it. Strange tubes with swirling grooves stuck out of the box at odd angles. "I don't really know what this wochy-majjiger is, but TARDIS hasn't stopped acting all wonky ever since this box started making the noises. HA!" In the very short amount of time Loki knew this man, he could easily deduce that he talked a lot and was very spontaneous. However, despite all the happiness and giggles that seemed to surround him, there was something quite repelling about this man... Loki couldn't tell if it was his aura of loneliness or his hideous periwinkle scarf, and at the moment, he didn't really care. This guy was the key to escape and that was all that mattered.

"AH HA! I told you I'd fix it, darling. I just had to collect our,"-the strange man dramatically twisted around and pointed at Loki- "...guest." He cackled and pointed his glowing stick at the back of Loki's muzzle. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced. I'm the Doctor."

The muzzle fell off of Loki's face. There were big red outlines on his face where it had been pressed against all that time. The lower half of his face was far more pale than the rest, which was saying something. "I, erm-"

"I know who you are, Loki, the paper told me. So..." The Doctor held up what looked like a small wallet. He flipped it open and inside was a small piece of white paper with only two words written on it: _Help Me_. "What did you need help with? Getting out? We've already done that. Want a cuppa tea? Lemme go make some. What kind do you want? Jasmine or lavender? I want jasmine, I'll go make us some. My tea-making is a bit destructive, so if you smell smoke or hear me scream just hit one of those big blue buttons there, m'kay?"

It was an extremely awkward situation for Loki. This man, the Doctor, was a heck of a blabbermouth and loved prancing around like some nutty ballerina. He didn't know how the Doctor got his message. He didn't even realize he had _sent _a message to anyone. "Message...?" Loki hesitantly asked.

"Yes. Message. You see, the paper the message was on is slightly psychic. Although it doesn't happen often, it can pick up distress signals, should they be large enough. You were practically screaming for help in your head." The Doctor whipped his head around and waved a hand through the air. "PSSHT, forget about tea. Why were you all tied up? Oh, never mind, I think I know. Now we can have some TEA!"

The Jotun cringed when the Doctor yelled that last part. _Does he really have to be so loud? _Without even asking, Loki followed closely behind the Doctor and into what was a large, fancy kitchen. "My turn to ask questions. Who are you and what do you plan to do with me now that I'm here?" He was short and to the point.

"I already told you, I'm the Doctor. Just your not-so-average Time Lord and protector of the human race." He flashed the liesmith a cheeky smile before continuing, "I don't know what to do with you. I just thought you needed help. Or just a lift home. Any place in specific?"

Loki tilted his head to the side. "Time Lord?"

The Doctor chuckled. "Yes, Time Lord. I have this special box called the TARDIS... Which is what we're standing in, by the way... And I travel in it. And protect humans."

"That's bland," Loki stated flatly as the Doctor rummaged around in a large, white cabinet.

"I don't think I mentioned that it can travel through space and time. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, TARDIS. Oh, I love her. The box, I mean." He let out a single, wheezy chuckle before tossing some tea into a pot of water.

"Space and time? _That's_ more like it. Do you think you could take me to Midgard, then?"

"What?! You can pick anywhere in the whole entire universe and you want to go to Earth? C'mon, let's make it something exciting!"

"No... Erm, 'Earth'." Loki was determined to get back there. Not that he would try to take over again or anything, but he wasn't about to set foot back on Asgard. Or Jotunheim. Or anywhere that the Chitauri had a chance to find him, for that matter.

Now that he thought about it, staying in one solitary place wouldn't be good for him. Since he wasn't locked up in that tiny cell, the Chitauri could easily track him down if he wasn't constantly on the move. Moving through space could keep his punishment at bay, but moving through time... He could live out the rest of his life without having to worry about the Chitauri. Maybe, he could even go back before the Avengers swore to protect Midgard and could crown himself king then. The possibilities where endless. He could completely destroy the Chitauri race, and destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. before they gathered the Avengers and could've taken over Earth then, just so his father could see what he had done. With something as powerful as the TARDIS, he'd be unstoppable.

The Doctor handed Loki a cup of tea, then quickly jerked his hand back. "Thanks," Loki said. "Now can we go to Midgard?"

"Nah, we're going to...," the Doctor paused and gave Loki a rather evil grin, "Jotunheim."

_Damn! How does he know? _Loki thought, but kept his lips sealed, lest he give away that he really was a Jotun and that this wasn't just something the Doctor said to tease him. "Tell me, why would you waste your time protecting humans when you have something as powerful as a TARDIS?"

"Eh, I get that a lot. I guess its because I feel like I need to. They're just kinda helpless, you know?" Loki chuckled, and the Doctor grinned and held a finger to his lips. "Don't let them know I said that."

"It's our little secret." He had no idea why, but he felt like he could get along with the Doctor, despite his blind and silly sense of justice. If he befriended this man, he might just get to finally go to Midgard. Not to mention, if he wanted to kill the Doctor and steal his TARDIS, he would have to observe him and learn how to work it, first. "Would you mind if I traveled with you? I don't have much better to do with my time," Loki kindly requested.

"Great minds think alike," the Doctor mused before actually replying. "Yes, I would enjoy that. Heh, not that I normally take on companions this easily. I usually have to do something really dramatic and heroic to convince them I'm not insane. It just... Feels like tradition."

"I'm just curious about this wonderful machine," Loki said.

The Doctor chuckled and patted his shoulder. "I'm just curious about you. I want to know what a tiny freezy-man was doing in Asgard. I figured you might have been captured or held hostage in a battle, but you don't look the fighting type. Not that you look scrawny or anything... Okay, you do look a bit scrawny, but only on Jotun standards. Why are you so small, anyway? Is it some sort of disguise?" He gasped. "You were caught spying on someone important, weren't you?"

_What an imbecile_, Loki thought. "How does everybody seem to be able to see through my disguise?" the liesmith falsely gritted through his teeth. It was convincing, but apparently not enough for the Doctor.

"Ha, you're cute. Rule one: the Doctor lies. Takes a liar to see a liar." He tapped Loki's nose. "Naughty, naughty. I'll find out eventually."

Instead of snapping back, as he usually would have done, he instead asked, "How did you know I was a Jotun?"

"When I handed you your cup, the tea instantly froze. Seriously, it was cold, you were locked up in a little box by Aesirs, which are basically the Jotuns' arch enemies. Not that hard to put together."

Loki looked down at his tea. It was indeed frozen. _That explains why he jerked his hand back. _"Hmph. You're good. I guess my magic is breaking." He didn't lie, but it wasn't meant the way he implied. After having first assumed he was dead, Odin probably slowly broke the connection between them that kept Loki in his Aesir form. The breaking was so slow that it probably wasn't noticeable until now. It wasn't until long when he might see his fingertips turn blue. "No worries, I'll fix it." Yeah, he could do that, no problem, but how much magic would it take? How long would it last?

"Good. I don't want to have to worry about catching frost bite everytime I walk close to you." The Doctor cackled and began slamming buttons and pulling levers on the TARDIS. "Next stop, Jotunheim!"

"We won't be there long, will we?" Loki asked.

"Depends." The TARDIS began shaking and shuddering, and the two began flying through space and time.

**AN: If you haven't been able to put it together, this Doctor is 12th incarnation (by human documentation). Meaning my Doctor. Sorry if its too rushed, but if you read my other fanfic, you'd know I HATE slow beginnings. I like tossing them right into the messiness. Read & review!**


	2. Magnetize

**AN: I just wanted you guys to know that this story is un-beta'd, so sorry for any grammatical/punctuation errors. I swear I try my best to catch them all. Also, if I make any continuation errors concerning the first eight doctors, then I should let you know that the only Doctors I watched were the ones in the new show. I tried finding a way to watch the older Doctors too, but Netflix just didn't have any of them. And the Loki in the book is probably more based off of his Norse Mythology version, but I try to balance the Norse Mythology/Marvel Universe out equally.**

The TARDIS pummeled into massive sheets of snow. The Doctor and Loki continued clinging onto the control board, even though the box had stopped moving. When they finally felt secure, they let go. "Whoo, what a bumpy ride, isn't it?" the Doctor asked with a chuckle. His wild brown hair was in his eyes, and his half-moon spectacles had flown off, no where to be seen.

"Yes, it was," Loki replied, not as happy about it as the Doctor seemed to be. His hair, which he had combed to perfection, was now poofing up in all of the wrong places. He couldn't keep those little hair spikes he loved so much. "Something hit me while we were in flight, though."

"My glasses?" the Doctor asked and rushed over to were Loki was. Lo and behold, his TARDIS-blue glasses were at the Jotun's feet. "YES! I CAN SEE!" the Doctor cried comically as he pushed his glasses back on his face. "No, I'm kidding. They're only reading glasses. I like to keep them on at all times, though. I know, I know, it's not good for my eyes. Do I care? Ha! No. I'll just get new eyes when I need them."

The Doctor was about to step outside. "Nope!" he called out suddenly as he turned around. "Too cold. I need a dire change of attire." The Doctor gave a wheezy laugh. "I rhymed."

Loki rolled his eyes. "I'll wait." Since he was already a Jotun, he didn't need to change anything. He was already adapted to absolute zero environments, so he could run around naked if he wanted to. Not that he did want to, but he could.

It was only about five minutes later when the Doctor returned. "How do I look?" he asked, spinning around and making silly poses like a model. He had on a white sweater with a navy blue peacoat over it. His scarf was wrapped snug around his neck. The Doctor's pants were a darker blue than the coat, and clung tightly to his legs. With his leather-gloved hands, he pushed up his glasses on his face.

"Not bad," Loki said approvingly. The Doctor chuckled.

The duo stepped outside into the blistering cold. There was a blizzard dying down on the outside. All that they could see where tall steeples and towers of ice. "Looks like we landed outside of a big city. Do we dare to explore out in the open or should we take to the shadows and stalk everyone?" the Doctor asked in a deep, dramatic voice.

"I would prefer the latter," Loki said.

"Alright. Mind you, my lips are already going numb. Oh, look, you're turning blue," the Doctor commented as he pointed at Loki's fingertips and the tip of his nose.

It was true. Loki's Jotun side was coming out. Normally, even his Aesir form could withstand cold temperatures like this, but since his magic was weak enough already, it was impossible to stop the transformation. It wouldn't make it any less easier to hide, considering he was so small for his kind. Blue veins rippled across his fingers, then his hands, then his arms. They began to slowly consume his whole body.

"Wow. It feels so weird to see a tiny giant," the Doctor said as he watched the blue stretch over Loki's face. His beautiful green eyes flickered and were soaked in a deep crimson. "Your eyes make you look evil. No offense, it looks great and all, but it gives you a very brooding appearance. That and your ever-constant pout." The Doctor mockingly stuck out his lower lip, then giggled.

"Thanks. I feel so loved around you," Loki retorted rudely. Tiny, evil, and moody in one go. Not that all three weren't true, but it really didn't help his mood to hear it laid out for him.

"I was just teasing. C'mon, let's get going, shall we?" the Doctor was having a bit of a struggle while trudging through the snow, but Loki gracefully glided through it as though he had much practice. It was unfair. "How do you do that?"

Loki merely shrugged. "I don't know. Natural talent, I guess. Stop pushing through the snow with your feet and sort of lift them up like this. No, don't stomp around like that. You... Ugh." Loki rolled his eyes and gave up. The Doctor lifted his feet up above his knees and was stomping around like some kid having a temper tantrum.

Due to the Doctor's silliness, it was a longer walk to the outskirts of the city than it should have been. There wasn't any sort of wall surrounding it, since the whole thing had been carved out of ice formations that were already there. They walked into the city. It was a deathly silent, with the only noise being that of rushing wind and the occasional howl of an animal. Loki's eyes squinted. "Hmph. It's unusually quiet," he murmered.

The duo began to casually walk through the city. "For all we know, they could be watching us from atop those tall ice towers," Loki pointed out.

The Doctor shuddered. "Thanks for the thought. I'm gonna get stuck with that someone's-watching-me feeling." He then began humming a song, not one Loki had heard.

Not a particularly catchy one, either, Loki thought. He rolled his eyes. "Well, what are we doing here?" he asked. "It's completely devoid of activity," he murmered.

"Well, we could go see what THAT is!" the Doctor called out excitedly as he rushed to a tall tower-like ice formation.

"That's just a temple," Loki said, sounding very annoyed. True, he didn't grow up on Jotunheim, but he knew a temple when he saw one.

"I'm going to see what's inside. I'm feeling awfully curious." The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the temple. "Very curious." He twisted the small object in his hands. "Yes, I'm definitely going in." It was strange. One second, the Doctor was all happy and jumpy about being in Jotunheim. Now that they were close to the temple, he was dead serious and set on getting inside. Loki brushed off the change of attitude as simply another one of the Doctor's habits.

The crunching of feet on snow faded as the snow got thinner and thinner. Finally, they were both walking down large, icy halls with many tall columns and statues of Jotuns of was an occasional yet loud tinkling noise from the massive, oriental ice chimes hanging from the ceiling. Nothing was lighting the room except an eerie green glow coming from the walls of thick ice.

Suddenly, a low growl was heard coming from one of the many corridors at the end of the hall they were walking through. The two wanted to be extra sure to avoid whatever creature made the noise, but it was difficult to tell where the noise was coming from because of the reverb the large, empty walls gave off.

"Should we just turn around?" Loki asked as they walked up to the large hallways. He didn't want to take his chances with one of the many ice beasts found here.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began pointing it down many of the halls. Loki noticed that, depending on which hall it was pointing at, the pitch of the constant whirring changed. When the pitch was so high it was almost screeching, the Doctor shook his head. "No, we need to go down here."

The minute the duo entered the hall, chills ran down Loki's spine. "I really don't think we should be down here," he said as he gazed at the back of his hand. Tiny hairs were standing up.

"But I'm looking for something..." the Doctor murmered as he pushed the button on his screwdriver again.

"What are we looking for, anyway?" Loki inquired. Whatever it is, it must have been really important, since the Doctor was apparently so keen on getting through these potentially dangerous halls.

The Doctor turned around and pointed the screwdriver at Loki. When he pushed the button, it made the same high-pitched noise that the Doctor was listening for when deciding which corridor to go down. "The source of this. Mind you, my screwdriver usually doesn't sound like this."

"W-wait, is that a bad thing?" Loki asked, seriously concerned for his well-being.

"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing we should really be worried about, I'm just a very curious man. I'm sure you could figure that one out for yourself, though." He gave a wheezy chuckle before slipping his screwdriver back into one of his pockets. "Now stop asking so many questions. You're going to drive me crazy."

"Why not? After all... I'm just a very curious man," Loki said with an attitude, flatly repeating the Doctor's earlier words. He recieved a sour look from the Doctor, but did nothing about it.

"Yup. We're definitely going down this particular hall. There's so much energy... But it's all electromagnetic. You see, I usually deal with various types of temporal energy, because electromagnetism doesn't usually cause problems. However, I think this particular energy has somehow magnetized, which drew you, the TARDIS, and this peculiar Jotun temple together." He pointed the screwdriver at Loki again, then pressed a small button that made it extend in length. He held it up to Loki's face. "See? These waves are really, really slow. But my screwdriver is making a very high-pitched noise. That's very unusual."

Instead of replying, Loki cringed. He really didn't want to go down that hall, or anywhere in that general direction, especially not with the Doctor. When he first entered the TARDIS, he thought he might have a chance of actually liking the Doctor. Not anymore, Loki thought as he reluctantly followed the Doctor down the long hall.

Their footsteps echoed across the large walls. They walked on for a few minutes, encountering no problems. It wasn't until the Doctor suddenly began to violently shiver that Loki was worried. He ran over to a wall and used his magic to carve a makeshift sword. The finished product looked crude and harmless. It would have to do. "Here," Loki said, tossing it to the Doctor. "You're going to need it."

"Oh, don't worry, I've done some sword-fighting before," the Doctor reassured, "I just, uh, used better swo-" The Doctor was cut off by a low, menacing growl. The duo whipped around to see a large white creature, a disgusting cross between a wolf and a bear, baring its freakishly white teeth at them. It was massive, with spots of blue dotting its long white fur. Small black eyes glared at them. Massive black antlers protruded out of the back of its skull.

"Oh Norns," Loki murmered under his breath. He tried to produce some daggers. "Damn," he cursed under his breath as he realized his daggers weren't on his person. As much as he wished he did, he didn't know how to use his magic to actually create things. Most of his magic was just tricks and illusions, and an occasional shaping spell. Nothing serious. He knew he could do something more powerful, like hide his Jotun form, but he had no idea if he was capable of something like that in his weakened state.

The large beast bolted toward them. It headed straight for Loki, who was standing right in its path. He turned and tried to run, but soon realized it was futile when he ran into a dead end. He turned around and stared at it in horror. His heart pounded against his ribcage. This was it. This was the end. The monster opened it's gaping jaws and prepared to crush the small Jotun.

Instead, the beast smashed head-first into the wall behind Loki's double. The illusion faded as the real Loki peeled himself off the wall he had pressed himself up against. Loki began to make himself two small daggers out of the ice. The Doctor was already rushing toward the large creature with his sword held high above his head.

When the beast backed up out of the ice, its antlers were smashed and broken, and its snout was bloody and bruised from ramming the wall as hard as it did. Without hesitation, it turned around and went to attack Loki again, since he was closest to it. "No, no..." Loki began chanting curses under his breath as he willed the ice to hurry up and carve. He soon realized that wasn't going to happen any time soon as the hideous monster's mouth hovered just above him.

"HYAA!" The Doctor let out a comical cry as he ran up beside Loki and thrust his sword to the roof of the beast's mouth. Blood began gushing out of the wound as the monster howled in agony and stumbled backward. It lost its footing and fell on its side, kicking wildly with its legs. It wasn't until the kicking stopped when the duo finally felt they could relax.

"That was horrifying," the Doctor said, then let out a breathy chuckle. He allowed himself to slide down the wall behind him and fall onto the floor.

Loki nodded and seated himself next to the Doctor. "Erm... Thanks."

The Doctor smiled, then furrowed his eyebrows. "What?"

"Thanks for saving me. Twice." Loki pulled his knees up to his chest. Damn those people that were nice to him. Sentiment, Loki thought. If it helps me befriend this man, then so be it.

"No problem," the Doctor said. "Come on, let's keep going. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, let's go," Loki said as he pushed himself up off the floor. The duo continued walking down the long hall.

Now that the beast was dead, the halls were silent once more. "I wonder... What was it doing in here?" Loki asked. "A monstrosity of that size has no business in these halls."

"I think it might have been put here intentionally," the Doctor said as he held up his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the room at the end of the hall. At first glance, it simply looked like another branch to more halls, but upon closer inspection, Loki could see a dim red light emitting from the room.

"It's glowing," Loki murmered as they made their way toward the room.

"Glowing?" the Doctor asked, then simply shook his head and continued walking toward the room. When they were there, they saw small groups of stone pedestals dotting the room. They each had small orbs on them, and the floor of the room had many more orbs. To the Doctor, they looked like plain black orbs. However, to Loki, they were all glowing a dim red.

Loki walked up to one and picked it up. When he saw his fingers changing back to their Aesir appearance, he cried out in surprise and dropped the orb. The Doctor picked it up and immediately pointed at it with his screwdriver. The screwdriver made the same high-pitched whirs that it did when pointed at Loki. "I think we've found the source of our little problem."

"What are they? They look very familiar..." Loki said. He knew he had seen them some time before, but he couldn't rememeber when or where.

The Doctor looked up at Loki with a very confused expression. "This looks familiar to you? Now that's odd. What is it even doing here?"

"Well, what it is?" Loki asked again.

"It's a power orb, used by Saurischia Mutante- A rather strange set of creatures. There's only two or three species left alive, I think, but none of them live anywhere close to Jotunheim or Asgard."

"Saurischia Mutante?" Loki asked.

"Yes. Basically, they're bipedal shape-shifting reptiles. They used to be extremely powerful, but ever since they began relying on these..." the Doctor held up an orb, "They've become weaker and began dying off. They needed new life-support systems. Their genetic code has always been unstable, due to their shape-shifting abilites, and they needed something to hold it together. So they took massive amounts of infrared energy from who knows where and sent it through many filters and made many changes and this is what happened. What keeps them alive kills them slowly. Tsk tsk. I'm guessing the ones using these have all died off, so the energy is had probably been depleted.. They're everywhere, though..."

"I can see it glowing a dim red colour, though. Does that mean anything?"

"Well, yes-Jotuns can apparently pick up weak traces of infrared energy in the colour spectrum. That and the fact that these aren't completely drained of energy, which is very useful. This is obviously what brought you and the TARDIS together. Well, I'm guessing that my sonic screwdriver only sounds high-pitched because there's so many of them, even though infrared waves aren't that fast. But there's something else... What am I missing?" he tapped his chin.

The Doctor scooped up two of the orbs and began to exit the room. "Come on, I'm going to trace these back to their source. I want to know what is going on here and why there's traces of this energy on you."

"I've probably just visited this area before," Loki said. "That would also explain why they look so familiar."

"I would think so to if this particular area wasn't months away from other towns. Also, my screwdriver says this energy has been sitting here, wasting away for almost a year, even though the orb itself has obviously been empty for much longer than that. That, and the fact you were in that box for little over a year. There was no way you could've been here when these were."

"What? A year?" Loki was surprised. He knew it had been long, agonizingly long, but an entire year... That was hard to swallow. "I... I have no idea. There's no way I should've seen these things before!"

"Exactly. Now come on, we've got a mystery on our hands." He held up one of the orbs again. "TARDIS can track this to it's original owner, no matter how long ago it was. So, without further ado, let's go!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hiemdall and Odin stood together at the end of the Bifrost. Ever since the Tesseract was returned, repairing the legendary rainbow bridge was much easier and faster than it had been previously. Now, all Aesirs could easily travel back and forth between the Nine Realms.

"Can you see him?" Odin asked, but Heimdall shook his head.

"No, your Majesty. Where ever he and his companion are now is far out of my sight," Heimdall replied in his deep, booming voice.

Odin made a small hmph noise. "I had almost forgotten today was the day. When the guard came running in and said he was missing..." Odin shook his head and chuckled. "You know, I'm expecting a visit from them later, just as Loki promised. But enough of that. I need to go calm down the guards. They're all probably worrying he's up to something bad again. Keep an especially careful eye out for him, would you?"

"I'll try my best, your Majesty.


	3. The Solution

**AN: Just so you guys know, the only reason this is getting updated so fast is because I've already posted chapter 5 on Wattpad and I just wanted to get it caught up on here. After around chapter 5 or 6, I wouldn't expect updates to come that fast. :P**

The inside of the TARDIS was noticeably calmer than it was the last time they traveled. Yes, though it was still very bumpy and rough, nobody was seriously thrown around. "Where has it taken us?" Loki asked.

"Uh, a year ago, somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy. I'm getting massive energy readings though, and... Oh. That's odd." The tapped a small screen hanging off the large column in the center of the TARDIS. "These readings are picking up coordinates from Earth. That is VERY far away. I think sexy is sick..."

"Sexy?"

"TARDIS. Same difference. Right after this, I'll have to move her somewhere to rest. I don't think she's ever done this before." He patted her control board. "Sorry, darling."

The Doctor poked his head out the TARDIS, then quickly pulled it back in and shut it. "Disgusting. Well, I was right. It was in fact a member of the _Saurischia_. This particular branch is the Chitauri. They call themselves the 'universe's immune system'-More like the 'universe's big red rash.' I can't stand these things."

Though it didn't show, Loki's heart hammered in his chest. _A Chitauri warship from one year ago, with random Earth coordinates close by... _Now Loki knew why the orbs looked so familiar, and why he had traces of them on himself. He had seen them before, while they prepared for battle on the warship. Chances were that they were currently on the ship while it floated right outside the portal he opened up with the Tesseract, hence the Earth coordinates. TARDIS wasn't messing up, she simply picked up energy traces from the Tesseract. He had to get the Doctor out fast or he was going to be in trouble.

The Doctor held up the piece of psychic paper to Loki. "Let's hope we don't need this," he said as he shoved it in a pocket inside his dark peacoat. "I wonder what's going on around here..."

They both exited the TARDIS cautiously. The room they stepped into was small and dimly lit, with many weapons lined along the wall. On once side of the room was a large window giving a clear view of the vast depths of space, and the other was a massive door with a large, valve-like handle. "Now, just because we have the paper doesn't mean we can strut around wherever we want. We'll still have to be careful."

"Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"Do we really have to do this? I mean, being up here is extremely unnerving." Loki tried to look fearful. However, much like when they first met only a few hours ago, the Doctor saw right through him.

"Come on, a big boy like you can handle it. I-" the Doctor cut himself off as he walked to one side of the room. He peered out the massive window and chuckled. "Ha ha! That's why she's picking up Earth coordinates! Lookie there, Loki! A massive portal, bringing two points in space at the same time together to one open door. But... It's opened from Earth's side." The Doctor pressed a finger to chin. "That's odd. It's only 2012. Humans don't have that technology yet. They're close, but there's definitely something odd going on down there." He scoffed loudly, then clapped his hands together. "What are we doing here? I think we should be over there." He pointed out the window.

Loki walked over to the Doctor. He was gesturing to the streets of New York. His view was slightly obscured by the many Chitauri warriors flying in. "I don't want to go," Loki said quietly. The Doctor threw him a strange glance, but the Jotun was distracted by the sight of the portal.

"My, my, that's an awfully strange pouty-face you're wearing there. Come on, we're going down there." They both walked back to the TARDIS. However, as soon as they were in, Loki rushed over to the control board and sat on it.

"Come on. Can't we go somewhere else?" Loki asked while swinging his legs.

The Doctor walked over to him with his arms folded across his chest. "When I first picked you up, you were desperate to get to Midgard. Now, you're acting childish and sitting on the control board, which makes it unusable to me. What's up?"

"I don't want to go anymore. Not with these lizard things running around."

"You are a horrible liar."

Instead of the expected reaction of confusion, Loki belted out a strangely cold laugh. The Doctor recoiled in surprise. "You're the first to think so. You must think you're so _damn special _because you can see through a few _little white lies_." He mimicked the Doctor and folded his arms across his chest. "We're not going to Midgard, not during this time period."

"You weren't in that jail because you attacked anything on Asgard, were you?" the Doctor asked. "And seriously, what's up with the sudden butthurt attitude?"

Loki threw his hands up in the air and slid off the control board. "My own worst trait is failing me! What's the point?! Here, have at it!"

"It's fine. I'll drop you off on Midgard a year from now. I don't think I want to know," the Doctor said as he walked over to the control board. "There's something I need to do there, anyway."

The TARDIS took off with a loud _whoosh_. Loki didn't have time to be properly surprised by the Doctor's response before they landed in New York. "I need your help for a minute. There's something in one of those rooms over there. The third one on the right. It looks like a big green box. Could you get it for me?"

"Erm... Sure. Thanks for dropping me off," Loki said as he walked over to the room, still slightly confused. The Doctor silently followed him. When Loki stepped into the room he called out, "Doctor, there is no green box."

"I know," the Doctor said from right behind him. Loki whipped around in surprise, but had no time to say anything before the Doctor slammed the door in his face and locked it. "I'll be back in half an hour."

"What?! Doctor, let me out this instant! I demand you release me!" Loki shouted from within the room as he began banging on the door.

The Doctor ignored Loki's cries and exited the TARDIS. Yes, he had taken the TARDIS to New York, but it was still 2012, on the very same date the Chitauri war ship had been hovering right outside the portal. The room he had parked it in had a large nook on the left side of the room facing the windows, not very well hidden, but a decent enough place to hide the TARDIS. He apparently landed in what seemed to be a well-furnished building. There were large windows giving a clear view of New York. Right outside the windows was a large balcony, and on it there was a tall, brooding man. "What do we have here?" the Doctor asked himself as he got closer to the window. The man didn't turn around, so the Doctor got really close to the window.

It wasn't until the man turned to his side a little bit that the Doctor could see his face. "Oh my..." he murmured. The man, dressed in dark green armour and dark black leather, completed with an exaggerated green cape, was none other than Loki himself. He looked very proud, and certainly much healthier than he did when he was locked in the box on Asgard.

This Loki, though still pale and a bit clammy, was nothing like the one he had locked up in his TARDIS. He was... Well, not very healthy, but his ribs weren't visible through his clothing, nor was his slick hair so long and messy it fell past his shoulders. Despite all of the glory the Loki outside shielded himself with, distress and horrors unimaginable were still written on his face, hidden under a thin veil. Whatever cursed Loki now still cursed him, even after all that time he spent locked away.

When Loki almost turned around completely, the Doctor jumped and ran back from the window. He couldn't risk having Loki see him, not yet. He hid in the same, small nook with the TARDIS and watched the events unfold in front of him. It was about then he noticed someone else was also entering the building. He crammed himself in the small place, the view of both him and the phone booth obscured only by a few thin, decorative curtains. While he was shuffling about to make himself comfortable, he saw Loki walk in on his side. One wrong move, one sharp breath, one tiny mistake, and Loki could pull back the curtains and see him.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki darkly crooned.

"Uh, actually, I'm planning to threaten you," the other man said. The Doctor could not place this man's voice, but he was sure it would come to him eventually.

"Heh, you should've left your armour on for that."

"Yeah, it's seen some mileage and you've got the 'glowstick of destiny.' Would you like a drink?"

Loki chuckled lightly. "Stalling me won't change anything."

"No no, threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm havin' one."

"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" Loki asked.

"The Avengers." Silence. "That's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. 'Earth's mightiest heroes' type of thing."

"Yes... I've met them."

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count here: your brother, the demi god-"

The Doctor could hear a faint grunt escape Loki. _Brother? That's very interesting..._

The other man continued, "A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins and _you, _big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

After the list off, the Doctor let out a small "ooh." He knew who he was dealing with now, it was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s gang. When Torchwood was still in business, he remembered going through a few files about S.H.I.E.L.D. and their alien encounters. The two used to work closely together, but for whatever reason, the organizations split. The Doctor tried to have as little to do with both of them as he could. Yes, he eventually had Torchwood shut down... Mostly. The parts that worried him, anyway. S.H.I.E.L.D. never did anything to earn a seriously big blip on his evil radar, so he let them be, for the most part. Chances were, S.H.I.E.L.D. probably didn't know that Torchwood was now an extremely small group of people.

"That was the plan," Loki replied.

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you." This man sounded very confident of himself. The Doctor liked that.

"I have an army."

"We have a Hulk."

_A Hulk?_

"I thought the beast had wandered off..."

"You're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top." The other man was now clearly agitated. "Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us but it's all on you, because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it."

Powerful, cheesy, extremely dramatic... The Doctor smiled._ Nice. These Avengers are doing my job well. _However, as cool as they seemed, the Doctor had something a bit more important on his hands. He had to find out what it was they were all going on about. What was it that Loki planned to do? Bring an army?

The Doctor stood up and tried to get back in the TARDIS. He felt he came a few days or so too late to find out what was the reasoning behind all of this. However, he stopped himself immediately the minute he heard loud engines whirring.

"And there's one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil Coulson." He heard a loud blast, followed by Loki's cry of pain and the slamming of something large against the floor. The Doctor didn't dare move again until he heard Loki get up and leave the room. His hand was on the TARDIS door when he was interrupted.

"Doctor?" a strangely proper voice asked. He hesitated, then poke his head out the curtains to see who spoke. The room was completely _empty_. "Oh, you told me you'd be here tomorrow."

"Who's there?"

"No one, sir. Good luck, though."

"Oooh-kay, that was odd," the Doctor murmured.

When he was back in the TARDIS, he heard Loki had apparently given up on beating the door. He actually pitied him a bit. The Doctor walked up to the room he had locked the Jotun in.

"Loki?"

"Go away."

"I'm sorry. I had to go do something personal." When he heard no reply, he continued, "I have one more errand to run, then I promise you I'll take you to Earth next year, okay?"

"... Fine."

The Doctor walked back over to the control board. He was going to a nearby S.H.I.E.L.D. base yesterday to see what was going on with the Avengers. When the engines began whooshing, he held on to the board for his dear life.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The S.H.I.E.L.D. base was sleek and perfectly clean. _They must have janitors working their poor arses off to keep it this clean, _the Doctor thought with a small smile on his face. He strutted through the hall, ignoring the strange glances other agents continuously threw him. Finally, as he expected, two agents stopped him, one male and one female. "Sir, we need to see your identification," the female stated loudly. He suspected it was his lack of proper uniform that kept people looking at him so suspiciously.

The Doctor pulled out his piece of psychic paper and held it to their faces. "Torchwood Specialist, I'm here to ask about the Avengers' role in what is suspected to be extraterrestrial activity."

The two agents looked at each other, then returned their attention back to the Doctor. "Sorry, sir. We'll escort you to the communications center. You'll be able to contact Nick Fury from there, he knows more about the Avengers Initiative." The woman, whose name tag read Clara, leaned over. "Which we know nothing about," she whispered.

The man, George, let out a nervous chuckle. "We don't get many folks from Torchwood here anymore. I thought we would be seeing some more after we collected the Tesseract, but you'd be the first."

"The Tesseract?" The Doctor stopped walking for a second to let it soak in. "What on earth are humans doing with something as powerful as the Tesseract?! That's going to lead up to weapons of mass destruction and horrible wars and..." He trailed off. "Oh dear."

The trio walked into a large room with many panels. There were people typing away at holographic computer screens, completely oblivious to their entry. "George, get Fury on the phone," Clara ordered.

Within the minute, the Doctor was holding a phone up to his ears, waiting for Fury to answer. After a few rings, he finally heard the other man pick up. "Who the hell is thi-"

"The Doctor of Torchwood, I'm calling to ask about both the Avengers and the Tesseract," the Doctor interrupted. "I need to confirm if there is, in fact, extraterrestrial involvement in the Avengers Initiative. Nothing serious, you're not in trouble, we just need to get it on file."

There was an audible huff on the other side of the line. "Your people need to keep your noses out of our business."

"I promise, just answer a few questions, then we'll leave you be."

"Fine. Ask away."

"Alright. Don't feel inclined to answer anything you feel uncomfortable with; I'll just hack into all of your files and get what I need anyway." He heard Fury huff again, but said nothing about it. "So, what exactly are the Avengers, um, avenging?"

"They're our response team to a very recent alien attack. There was a man who came to Earth by using the Tesseract as a portal. He attempted to steal the Tesseract so he could create another portal. We currently have him in custody."

"Who is this man?"

"He says he's Loki of Asgard. He has a brother, Thor, but he is a friendly."

Oh._ Oh_. Thor was definitely a name he knew. Of course, he'd heard rumors about the golden boy of Asgard, but he had never actually wanted to meet him. _But Thor's Aesir and Loki's Jotun..._"Right. Do you have any idea why Loki is doing this?"

"Not really. Earlier, Thor mentioned something about it being revenge on him. Are you done asking me questions yet?"

"Just one more. What do you plan to do with the Tesseract?"

"That's classified," Fury answered firmly.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Alright. I guess I have no other choice... I'm hacking into your systems."

"Good luck," Fury sarcastically snarled. He swore on the other end, then promptly hung up.

"Hmph. Touchy." The Doctor snapped the phone shut and handed it to George. George was giving him a cautious look, and had one hand on the gun on his belt. "Hey hey, George-ey buddy, I was just joking about the hacking. I was simply trying to get on his nerves. Thanks for putting up with me. You should recieve no more interference from Torchwood in the near future. If you do... Take it up with the head honcho." He winked at the agent.

"Should I escort you to the exit?" George asked, now obviously relieved.

The Doctor smiled. "Nah, I can get there myself. Thanks, anyway." With a wave, he left the room. He kept his sonic screwdriver in hand for whenever he needed it, which would be as soon as he found some remote screen of some sort. He found a small screen displaying the internal temperature of some emergency bunkers below the base. What they were doing in an above ground part of the building, he had no idea, but they would work.

Luckily for the Doctor, the whirring of his screwdriver didn't attract any unwanted attention. This hall remained unusually quiet, not that the Doctor was complaining. Though the information he wanted to access was harder to get to than usual, he eventually managed to pull up some strange files. "Phase 2...?"

What he read next angered him. _Of course, typical human stuff! You have an unlimited source of energy, energy you desperately need, and instead of using it to power things you make weapons! So predictable! _

He stormed back to the TARDIS. He would have to lie to Loki one last time. When he entered the TARDIS, he immediately walked back to the room Loki was in. "Loki? Still with me?"

"Yes. Let me out now, will you?"

"Sorry... This is becoming far more complicated than I previously thought."

"Take me back to the box."

"... What?"

"My box. My prison. If you're going to leave me locked up here in this room, I might as well be back in that torturous little-"

"No. I'm not taking you back. I promise, I only have one more errand to run."

"Why can't you go ahead and drop me off in the promised time period?"

"Look, I'll explain later, but I seriously need to get this done _now_."

Without waiting for a reply, the Doctor headed straight back over to the control board and set his coordinates for the same S.H.I.E.L.D. base, but a few days later. He would need to know the progress of this "Phase 2", and if the events that were to take place soon would change anything.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The base was bustling with activity, busy as ever. Much like his last visit, the Doctor kept receiving many strange glances, but like last time, he simply ignored them. He kept wandering around the base until he found a familiar face.

"Ah, Miss Clara! Just the person I've been looking for," the Doctor said as he held out a hand.

"I thought you said no more interference from Torchwood," she retorted, but accepted his hand shake anyway.

"Sorry about that. I just need to know the current status of the Tesseract. Again, you're not in trouble, we just want to keep tabs on it, and make sure nothing bad happens."

"Then you'll be pleased to hear that it was returned to Asgard, galaxies away from here," Clara replied.

The Doctor let a smile of relief spread wide across his face. "Oh, good. Well, this should be the last you hear of me." He winked, then left. He thought he saw Clara wave, but he ignored it. He had something special in mind.

When he returned to the TARDIS, he went straight back to Loki's room, same as before, though he wasn't expecting Loki to slap him as hard as he did when he unlocked the door. "What took you so long? You swore to me that you would be done within the hour!" Loki demanded.

"Oi! That was completely unecessary. You seem to have forgotten that I had errands to run. I promise we are leaving for 2013 New York _right now_."

At this point, Loki wasn't quite sure he wanted to be in New York anymore. Sure, he had demanded it earlier, but he was internally conflicted. He would've argued for some other place, but he didn't want to risk being locked in another room while the Doctor ran more "errands." There was one more thing he desperately needed from the Doctor, though. "Does this TARDIS have a bathing room?"

"Yeah. Down the same hall, same side, just a few more doors down. I'm confident in your abilities to find it." The Doctor let out a wheezy chuckle.

"Okay. What about any blades?"

"What do you need those for?"

"Erm... You'll see."

The Doctor wasn't quite sure he wanted to tell Loki he did in fact have blades, which ever kind he wanted. "You mean, like, a knife or a razor? Why am I even asking, I'm not going to give you one."

Loki rolled his eyes. "A knife. I promise, I have no wish to harm you. If I did, then I would have no means of transport, since I do not know how to work this TARDIS." Loki seemed honest enough.

Reluctantly, the Doctor gave him one of his smooth kitchen knives. "Sorry if you were expecting anything fancy."

"No, this will suffice. Thanks. Wait, one more thing, Doctor: Are you experienced in the medical field?"

"Well... I'm no physician..."

"Ugh, nevermind, it's probably nothing."

Instead of asking anymore about the strange request, he simply let Loki be while he went and checked the TARDIS for any signs of sickness, just in case. He figured it would be best to wait until Loki was done before he left. Until then, he seriously thought about everything he had investigated since he found the Jotun.

_So, he wanted vengeance on a man that's not even related to him, which ultimately led to an attempt to dominate the world. There's got to be something else to that story, some far more important variables in what was obviously a very complex equation. But... What?_

**AN: Reviews + favorites are appreciated! :DD**


	4. The Equation

**AN: the-consulting-dragon. tumblr image/ 38838683248 (Remove the spaces and add the dot com. It won't let me upload it the way it is.) It's a picture I drew of the Doctor. It's currently the only picture I've drawn on my tablet, but as soon as I get over my wicked back problems, I plan to finish the picture of Loki I started forever ago.**

While the Doctor waited for Loki to finish his bath, he busied himself with checking various points of the TARDIS. He wasn't expecting to see what he did when Loki got out. "Oh, so that's what you needed the knife for..." He smiled. "I like it."

Before, Loki's long greasy hair was falling far past his shoulders and was simply unruly. Now, it stuck up in odd directions due to being so short. "I bet it looks horrid. I couldn't find a comb. Surely you have one?"

"Yeah, it's in the room right across the bathroom. There's also some new clothes in there if you need them," he said, noticing that Loki was wearing nothing but a very large towel. Loki simply nodded and left the room again.

It took Loki a much shorter time to pick out his clothes than the Doctor had expected. He still managed to have the black and green theme he had when he was trying to take over Earth, but it lacked all of the flair and royalty his armour gave him. He had on a dark green, turtle neck shirt with a black hoodie vest on over it. His pants were skin tight, black leather, accompanied with simple black shoes. On his sleeves were small silver vambraces. His hair was still stuck up, but it was a bit more controlled. "I hope this isn't too unnatural for humans."

"Jotunheim is obviously lacking in the fashion department," the Doctor said before he could stop himself.

Loki just started laughing. "But you see, Doctor, we normally do not wear clothes on Jotunheim. Only loincloths." He patted the vambraces. "I might remove these. Might. But I like the rest of my outfit. Besides, you're not really one to talk. You have way too much blue, and that hideous scarf clashes with all of it."

"Wait, I have way too much blue?" the Doctor retorted gleefully.

"Indeed you do. I only wear my Jotun skin when in dire need of it."

"So in all other cases, such as now," the Doctor said while gesturing to Loki's whole body, "you were second-hand garbage?"

"Oh, alright. You win. Enough of this banter, I want to go to Midgard."

The Doctor made a tsking noise. "I was hoping you'd put up a bit more of a fight than that, little man." He let out another one of his wheezy cackles after he saw Loki's face scrunch up in disapproval.

"I'm taller than you!"

"But you're short for a Jotun. By the way, how old are you?"

"1161."

"Heh, you'd be my..." The Doctor trailed off for a bit as though he was thinking, then soon continued, "... third companion to be almost as old as me! I mean, only by a few hundred years, give or take, but you are." He smiled and started the TARDIS up.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX

The streets of New York in 2013 were just as busy as ever. Cars were honking in the midst of the traffic, and people were hustling through the crowded side walks to reach their destinations before dark. In this street, Loki and the Doctor were invisible.

The Doctor pulled a small card out of his peacoat and pointed his screwdriver at it. Loki peered over his shoulder to see what he was doing. "What exactly is that thing? I keep seeing you pull it out and point it at stuff... What does it actually do?"

"A little bit of everything," the Doctor said with a shrug. "Well, not everything. It can't be used as a weapon. Well, depends on your definition of weapon. It can't directly harm anything. Oh, look! Ice cream!"

Before Loki could say anything, he was dragged into a small building with a little bar and three rotating pink bar chairs. There were small booths pressed up against the wall. The entire place had a colour scheme of white and pink, making it look very frilly. The Doctor looked at him with a huge grin. "This place has some of the best ice cream in the universe and believe me, I oughtta know." He winked at Loki and walked up to a counter.

A petite blonde woman stood behind the counter. "What would you two like to order? The special today is a cup of coffee frozen yogurt-"

"NO! THE FRO-YO IS A LIE!" The Doctor shouted loudly, causing everyone in the ice cream parlour to stare at them. Loki blushed, the red in his cheeks stark against the rest of his pale face and virtually impossible to hide. "Me and my companion both want double-scoop mint chocolate chip in a large waffle cone." The woman, still shocked from the Doctor's outburst, simply nodded and pushed some buttons on her register. He turned to face Loki. "Go find us a seat. I'll be there in a mo."

There was an open booth at the back of the small parlour; Loki decided they would sit there. When he sat down, he turned his gaze out the window. Everything was so messed up now. What felt like only minutes ago, he was locked up in a tiny little box as punishment for his crimes. Now, he was traveling with the Doctor, a man who could travel through time and space. He didn't really know why he had wanted to come to Midgard, maybe just to see how well it had handled his attack. He also didn't know where he wanted the Doctor to take him next.

When the Doctor arrived, he was carrying two large cones dripping with the cold confection. "Here you go. Eat up." The Doctor began to lick his ice cream.

Loki held the treat in his hands and stared at it. He saw the Doctor licking it, but he thought that was a silly way to eat something. He took a large bite right out of the ice cream. When he did so, the Doctor's eyes grew wide.

"No, no, no! Don't do that! You'll get a brain freeze!" _And the area around your mouth is turning blue!, _the Doctor wanted to shout.

The Jotun chuckled and continued taking large bites of his ice cream. "This is delicious. I don't think we have anything on Asgard like this." Loki didn't seem to notice he slipped up since he was so captivated by his ice cream, so the Doctor didn't say anything about it. Later, however, he was going to carefully press on the subject.

"So... Are you feeling anything?"

"Besides amazing? No."

"No head ache, no pain in your mouth?"

"Nothing at all. I'm a frost giant, remember?" He lapped at the ice cream until the cone put it out of reach. "What's with this confounded cone?"

"You put that part on your head."

"What?!"

"Just kidding. You eat that, too."

Loki first took a small, cautious bite. As soon as he decided he loved it, he finished the entire cone in five bites. The Doctor stared at him while slowly licking his ice cream. "Are there any napkins I could use?" Loki held up his hands, which were covered in melting green ice cream.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Just lick your fingers."

"How barbaric. I'm going to retrieve some napkins." Loki stood up and went to the counter with the young woman. "Are there any napkins?"

"Right there, darling," she said, pointing at a napkin dispenser. Loki cringed at being called "darling", but went to look at what she was pointing at. It was a small brown box with what looked like a soft white piece of paper hanging out. He took one out and used it to wipe his hands. He continued to do this while walking back to the table, where the Doctor wasn't even entirely done with his first scoop.

With a chuckle, Loki sat down. "Can I have another?"

The Doctor held out the same small card he used to purchase the ice cream. "Knock yourself out." When he saw Loki's right eyebrow arch, he smiled. "That means yes."

The Jotun walked back over to the counter with the card in hand. When he reached the woman, he politely asked for another mint ice cream. The woman leaned over the counter to whisper to him, "What does he have against frozen yogurt? Is he, like, special or something?"

Loki laughed. "I have no idea." He thought for a moment, then stopped the woman before she punched his order into the cash register. "Forget the ice cream. I want the largest bowl of frozen yogurt you can give me."

The woman smiled. "You want that coffee-flavored, hun?"

He cringed again, but nodded. When he received his bowl, he paid for his food and left (how such a little card was able to get him all this frozen yogurt, he _thought _he would never know.) The look on the Doctor's face when he returned to the table was priceless. "Fro-yo," the Doctor hissed.

"I do what I want," Loki crooned. He handed the card back to the Doctor before digging in to his frozen yogurt. He moaned in delight as he continued shoving spoonfuls into his mouth faster than he could eat it. Although he really did enjoy it, he felt it was more over to get on the Doctor's nerves. "This is so good."

"Oi! How dare you give praise to that frozen dairy death trap!" The Doctor said, imitating Loki's accent and scrunching up his face. Loki tried to contain the laughter, but ended up spewing out some of his yogurt back into the bowl.

"Oh, how disgusting. I can't eat this now." Loki said, feigning sorrow. As soon as he looked up at the Doctor, however, he began laughing hysterically. The two men were causing a scene with their obnoxiously loud laughter. When they were done, Loki shook his head and wiped his mouth with the napkin. "I don't think I've laughed that hard at something in years, especially not something that stupid."

The Doctor waved a hand at him. "Come on now! You can't be serious?"

"I'm dead serious," Loki replied.

"I'll just have to remedy that, won't I?" the Doctor said, and smiled. "You'll be alive serious. Anyway, I'm almost done with my ice cream. We'll leave soon."

Loki stood up and snatched the Doctor's credit card away. "In the meantime, I want another ice cream." The Doctor's eyes widened, but he remained silent.

When Loki returned with a massive chocolate ice cream cone, the Doctor asked, "How can you eat so much? You're going to have a very bad stomach ache later."

"I was locked up for over a year, suffering serious malnutrition. I need sustenance. I don't think this atrocious eating habit will stop for a while." Loki was about to take a large bite of his ice cream when he paused and turned to the Doctor. "Which reminds me. When I asked if you were a medical doctor... I was wondering; If I haven't walked for over a year, why haven't my legs atrophied? Or my arms, for that matter?"

"That... Is a very good question. Unfortunately, I don't know. Maybe Jotun limbs are less susceptible to deterioration. I couldn't give you an exact answer, though." As the Doctor finished off his ice cream, he saw Loki had already demolished his own. "Alright, let's go."

They both left the building and were back in the crowded streets of New York. It was completely dark outside now, but it was still busy as ever. The lights from the many cars, street lights, and buildings around them made it easy to see everything. "You know, they call this the city that never sleeps."

"I can see why," Loki murmured. "I prefer a nocturnal life style myself. I still get sleep, though. Actually, I used to-"

"Oh! It's almost time!" the Doctor exclaimed suddenly. He grabbed Loki's hand as they rushed back to the TARDIS. He shoved the Jotun in and shut the door behind himself. "I've got some place special to take you, but it's a bit far. I know you'll like it."

They were taken to a large grassy field, where the dark sky was visible. There were crickets chirping everywhere, and the moist summer air was heavy around them. Fireflies flickered on and off, making it look like the tall grasses were winking at the duo. Cries of large birds echoed from the Spanish-moss covered trees. It was a beautiful sight. "It's the same night, just a different place. Today is July 4, 2013, in Houma, Louisiana. The swamps are a wonderful place to hike if you're fond of mosquitoes, mud, and alligators." The Doctor cringed. "Basically, don't hike in a swamp. I tried once for-"

A loud boom cut him off. They both looked up to see a large red burst in the sky. "Ah! The fireworks have started!" the Doctor cried jovially. Loki gazed up in awe as another one rocketed up into the air. It left behind a sparkling golden trail, and soon burst into a massive purple and silver flower.

"It's so lovely..." Loki murmured as he watched more fireworks whiz and bang.

"M-hm. They use it to celebrate their independence." Loki merely nodded, not really paying attention. The Doctor would have to speak up to get his point across. "This is the day they were freed from oppression by higher powers."

The Doctor was started to get his expected results. Loki's lips curled, but quickly loosened soon afterwards. "Why?" was all he asked.

"Freedom. They fought long and hard for it."

"That just goes to prove that humans will do anything for that illusion," Loki said through gritted teeth.

"Yes, but it also shows just how powerful humans can be." The Doctor chuckled. "I've been all over their history, and in my 1000 years of living, they still manage to surprise me. It's not what they do for freedom, but what they accomplish once they recieve it. For such a young race, they've grown considerably. Now, they thrive in exuberance. Life is crawling out of every nook and cranny on this planet thanks to freedom. It's amazing to watch them grow." The Doctor smiled up at the fireworks blasting above them. "They go far to show what they're made of."

Loki remained completely silent. The Doctor knew his speech wasn't going to magically change anything, but he hoped it had at least made Loki _consider_ the fact that humans weren't _completely_ worthless."Well, they have wonderful light shows," Loki mentioned silently. _Drat._

Finally, the last firework popped in the sky, leaving an eerie silence and dim lighting in its wake. When the crickets got back to chirping, the Doctor and Loki climbed back into the TARDIS. "So... Where are we off to, now?" Loki asked. Though he tried to deny it, he felt ever so slightly excited to know where they were going next.

"Um... Back to New York?" The Doctor asked in a way that seemed to imply Loki should've known that.

_How insipid_, Loki thought, but held is silence as the Doctor messed with the many little knobs and levers and whatnot on the TARDIS dashboard. He walked up next to the Doctor to observe exactly what he was doing. It was all very complicated, sure, but he would have to learn it some day if he was to kill the Doctor and take the TARDIS.

When they landed on the streets of New York, the Doctor handed him the card. "Here. Use this to get yourself whatever you want. It has unlimited American currency, so don't worry about over-spending."

"Where are you going?" Loki asked suddenly. "You're not leaving me here, are you?"

_Ooh, concern for me. This is new_, the Doctor thought as he nodded. "Yes, but only for a little while. I have more of those errands to run, but since you hated staying inside the TARDIS so much, I figured you'd be more comfortable here."

"No, no, no. I'll stay in the TARDIS, I promise, I just didn't like being locked up in that room."

"I think it'd be best if you stayed here. I'll come pick you up as soon as I'm done. Heck, I'll probably appear a few feet away from here in a few seconds, what with this being a time machine and all." He winked at Loki. "Back in a mo."

Before Loki could protest, the Doctor climbed right back into the TARDIS and slammed the door shut. Loki knocked on the door. "Doctor? Please let me in!" When the TARDIS began making its signature whooshing noise, Loki went from simply knocking to banging the door. "Doctor?! Please!" The TARDIS completely disappeared. Loki waited for a few seconds, but nothing happened. _Lying bastard_, Loki thought as he pulled his hoodie over his head. _Now I'm alone and virtually powerless in the territory of my enemy._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The TARDIS landed in a large, icy hall, much like the one he and Loki had been in on Jotunheim, and rightfully so. "Hey, this isn't where I wanted to land! I was going to land in Laufey's castle," the Doctor complained to the TARDIS as he stepped out. As soon as he went silent, though, he thought he could hear the crunch of footsteps against the snow if he listened close enough. However, another noise soon arose, much louder and closer than the footsteps. The sound certainly didn't belong in a temple. It was the cries of an infant.

**AN: For the time being, just imagine Loki dressed as weird Heather Mason/Tom Hiddleston mashup with his hair from JiM.**


	5. The Variables

**AN: WARNING: This chapter has some FEELS. Some VERY SAD FEELS. Reader discretion is advised. :P**

The Doctor approached the sound slowly. He reached a large, semicircular room with a huge opening and small set of stairs on one side. There was a small Jotun infant on the floor. It was much smaller than normal Jotun offspring._ Like Loki_, the Doctor thought as he approached the baby. He now knew why the TARDIS chose to bring him here. _What do I do?, _the Doctor asked himself. _It's not everyday I find a baby laying around..._

He slowly approached the child. Loki was crying and kicking his little legs. His face was scrunched up and wrinkly. The sight made the Doctor chuckle. The little Jotun heard him and stopped wailing almost immediately. Although Loki's wide scarlet-brown eyes were wet with tears and his face was covered in little frozen drops, he looked more curious than sad to see the Doctor. He grinned from ear to ear as he reached over to pick up Loki. "It's okay, little Lo, I've got you..."

As soon as his fingertips touched Loki's hand, the Doctor recoiled and exclaimed in pain. The Doctor's fingertips were blue and stinging with a painful burning-yet-freezing sensation. The sudden movement made Loki cry again. "No, no, no! It's okay! I'll get you!" the Doctor said as he tended to his hand. The wound was bothersome, but it didn't spread.

The Doctor looked out of the big opening in the room. There, he saw corpses of Frost Giants littered across the snowy landscape. In the distance, he saw some Aesir warriors on horses._ Hmm... _The Doctor lifted his fingers up to his mouth and let out a long whistle to see if he could grab the attention of the Aesirs, but to no avail. None of the warriors responded. Instead, he tried shouting. "Hey! HEY!" he cried, hoping to finally make them pay attention. Still no good. Finally, he pulled out his sonic screwdriver, pressed a few small buttons on it to change the settings, and held it toward the warriors. "Sorry, Loki," the Doctor said to the baby quietly before pushing the final button on the screwdriver.

A loud whirring noise echoed throughout the room. The sonic screwdriver whirred twice as loud as it usually did. The loud noise made Loki cry louder than before. However, the noise only captured the attention of one warrior: _Odin_. He turned back to his soldiers for a few seconds before ordering his horse to gallop toward the temple. The Doctor hastily ran to the hall to hide himself.

Odin walked up the steps to see the little baby lying in the center of the room. He walked over to him and picked him up. The Doctor could clearly see that Odin had a heavily damaged eye, and much of his armour was dirty and battered. Despite this, he gazed upon Loki with much admiration. The Doctor watched as Odin changed the Jotun offspring's appearance so that he looked like an Aesir child. Afterwards, the king looked around the room, seeing if he could find the source of the whirring noise.

When he realized he would probably never find out what made such an odd noise, Odin left the temple with the child in his arms. _I wonder how he's going to explain that to his soldiers_, the Doctor thought as he retreated back to his TARDIS. He didn't want to spend a second longer on the freezing planet.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The TARDIS materialized in a large golden hall. No sentries stood guard in the hall, so the Doctor took to peeking around. He had only gone forward ten years or so, so at a Jotun's growth rate, Loki would still be a tiny toddler, maybe not even that. Unfortunately for him, he didn't get very far before he did run into a few guards.

"Halt! State your buisness," one of them said formally while holding a spear to his throat.

"Woah, woah, hold on there now. Just let me get my..." the Doctor said before trailing off and searching the pockets inside his peacoat. When he felt nothing in them, he laughed nervously. "Just, gimme a mo," he said while re-checking his pockets, a bit more frantically this time. _Where is it? It's always supposed to be with me!, _the Doctor thought worriedly as he realized his psychic paper was missing. "It's... Not there..." He gulped and gave the guards an uneasy look. "Heh heh, I must have left it in the TARDIS, just let me go get it real quick."

The guard moved his spear from his neck to his back. He grabbed the Doctor's hands and held them behind his back. The other guard held his spear towards the Doctor's person as well. "You'll be held in a dungeon until further notice."

"No, no! I'm seriously meant to be here! I need to talk to Odin about his-"

"You will trade no words with his Highness. Now hold your tongue lest I cut it off," one of the guards said menacingly. The Doctor immediately silenced himself.

They continued walking down the long halls. It wasn't until a few minutes later when they actually passed Odin by in the halls. He had been on his way to the nursery, but stopped when he saw the two guards with the Doctor. "Who is this man?" Odin asked as he approached the trio.

"A trespasser," one of the guards said. "We were going to hold him in a dungeon until-"

"No need," Odin interrupted. "Who are you and what buisness do you have walking about my castle?" He waved at the guards, indicating that they should let him go.

When they released the Doctor, he cleared out his throat and straightened his jacket. "I'm the Doctor. Not that you would know that. But," the Doctor said, pulling his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, "You might remember this."

"I have never seen such a thing in all my years," Odin said as he stared at the strange item.

"Oh no, you haven't, but you've heard it. Remember this?" The Doctor pushed a button on the screwdriver. Odin's eyes went wide at the sound of the whirring. He _did_ remember. "I would like to speak to you in private concerning the day you heard this noise," the Doctor said quietly. He let go of the button.

Odin was still in a slight state of shock. "Follow me. Guards, you are dismissed." The guards, though confused, nodded and left. The Doctor followed closely behind Odin. The king heading towards the nursery, though the Doctor didn't know this. "Who are you really?" Odin asked.

"Just 'the Doctor.' I promise," the Doctor said.

"Alright then, Doctor... What in the nine realms were you doing on Jotunheim that day? You certainly are no Aesir, nor are you Jotun. All godly beings of the nine realms contain seidr; yet, you have none. You cannot be human, either, for they have yet to advance that far."

"Erm... It would be a bit too difficult for you to understand exactly what I am."

"I can manage," Odin insisted. He led the Doctor into the nursery and toward a large, ornate crib. Inside was a little sleeping Loki. "Though his true parentage is absolutely monstrous, I could never bring myself to regret having him here," Odin said softly as he gazed at the sleeping baby.

The Doctor's face split in a wide smile. He wanted to reach forward and touch Loki's little black curls, but that would probably wake him up. "Not monstrous. Just misunderstood."

"How do you know so much? I demand you tell me what you are," Odin said, hushed but harsh. Loki stirred at the sound of his father's voice. Odin held a finger to his lips and motioned the Doctor out of the room. "Why did you lead me to Loki?"

"Because he needed a parent. He was left alone to die." The Doctor sighed. "It seems I have a lot to explain to you. Now, it is your turn to follow me."

"Where are we going?" Odin asked. The Doctor didn't answer, but instead waved his hand.

After a few minutes or so of walking, the duo found themselves in front of the TARDIS. "I'm a Time Lord, from the planet Gallifrey." Odin looked severely confused, so the Doctor continued. "This is my TARDIS. I use it to travel through space and time." He stepped a bit closer to Odin. "This version of me, right now, is from the future."

Odin shook his head. "That is impossible. No technology nor magic has gone that far. You are mad."

"It's awfully conceited of you to just assume that I'm mad because I'm more advanced than you." Odin's face scrunched up in anger, but the Doctor ignored it. "Here, I'll prove to you that I can travel through time. Ta-ta!" he cried as he stepped into the TARDIS.

"Where do you think you're..." Odin trailed off as he watched the TARDIS disappear with a few loud whooshes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Doctor returned a few minutes later, after Odin had left. He snuck into the nursery, where he saw little Loki awake and peeking over the crib. Large tears poured from his round emerald eyes and his tiny hands reached out for someone to hold him. If the Doctor hadn't been on an important mission, he would have keeled over dead from overdose of adorableness right then and there. He reached over and lifted Loki out of the crib. "Shh, shh, shh, it's okay," the Doctor comforted as he held Loki close to his person and began rocking the baby in his arms.

Although the little boy was just a bit to big to be rocked, Loki didn't complain or protest. The Doctor grabbed a small handkerchief from a nearby table and wiped the tears and snot off the baby's face. Loki tried pushing it away, but in the end, the Doctor won. "Come on, we have someone important to visit."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Carrying baby Loki in his arms, he headed straight for the nursery. It was thirty years after he had picked up the child, so the Loki in the current time period should be walking and possibly even talking at this point. Not like that mattered, though. The Doctor knew he needed to focus on finding Odin and, if at all possible, avoid Frigga and any guards.

When he reached the nursery, he saw it was completely empty. There were no cribs or baby supplies in it at all. "Well, this was a waste of time," the Doctor murmered. When he turned around, he saw Odin and two guards running toward him. "HIM! THAT'S HIM!" Odin shouted as he pointed a finger at the Doctor.

The two guards pointed their spears at him. "I heard the noise your box made. I will have you arrested for trespassing and speaking of mad things." Odin paused, noticed what the Doctor was holding, then asked, "What is that?"

Baby Loki cooed softly at the sound of his "father's" voice. Odin's eyes widened as he placed a hand on the small bundle. He instantly recognized Loki's face. "No... This isn't..." Odin took a few nervous steps back, then turned to his guards. "Collect Loki. Bring him to me. I must be sure he is here." The guards nodded and went to collect the young child.

Odin turned back to the Doctor. "What is the meaning of this?"

The Doctor shrugged. "What better way to prove I can travel through time than to bring you your child from the past? I waited until you left and picked him up while he was crying. He had just woken up." The Doctor poked the baby's nose and smiled as Loki began sucking the Doctor's finger with his gums. "I can see he's still teething, too."

"I... I think I remember that. A nurse came running to us saying he was missing. When we came back a few minutes later, he was awake and crying." Odin furrowed his eyebrows. "No, that nurse just didn't check under the blankets."

"Then how do I have him?" The Doctor sighed, then rolled his eyes. "Here, I'll bring you with me when I return him to his rightful spot."

The guards returned. A nurse followed closely behind, with a tiny toddler Loki holding on to her hand. "Pa... pa!" Loki shouted buoyantly as a wide smile spread across his face. His arms spread wide as he ran toward Odin and wrapped himself around his father's leg like a leech.

Instead of returning the affection, Odin stood there in awe. "I can hardly believe this." He grabbed the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "I demand you show me you can travel through-"

"Okay, you four, leave now!" the Doctor said, intentionally cutting Odin off. He didn't want anyone else besides Odin to know of his time traveling. They stood there in confusion, then turned to Odin for orders. The king simply nodded, signaling their leave, which they did without question. The Doctor, Odin, and baby Loki soon found themselves inside the TARDIS.

"Impossible! It's larger on the inside!" Odin exclaimed the minute he stepped in.

"Hmm. 'Larger'. I think this would be the first time I've heard someone use that specific wording," the Doctor mused as he handed the child to Odin. He set himself straight to work on getting them to the past.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When the trio stepped out, Odin scoffed. "Fool. This looks exactly like my halls."

"Because it is. Thirty years in the past, of course. Now shut up unless you want yourself to get curious as to why you hear yourself talking about yourself." The Doctor scrunched his face up momentarily. "Did I... Yeah, I said that right. Let's continue. Quietly, though."

They headed toward the nursery as secretly as possible. When they got there, Odin gasped at the sight of the cribs in the room. "But... I had those removed..."

"Not yet, you haven't," the Doctor said with a sly grin as he placed baby Loki back into his crib. The infant began tearing up, and started wailing loudly as the Doctor and Odin left the room. Unhappy at the thought of being left alone again, Loki sat down on the padding in the crib and hit the bars with his pudgy little fists. It was so soft and quiet that even the Doctor and Odin couldn't really hear it, but he tried nonetheless.

"Shhh, over here," the Doctor said while motioning Odin to stand in a certain spot, barely out of sight.

"This is ridiculous," Odin harshly whispered. "I-"

"He isn't missing," Odin witnessed a younger version of himself say. "See? Do you not hear him wail for attention?"

The young nurse apologized profusely. "I'm sorry, your Highness, I thought he had really gone missing."

The Odin from the future didn't want to believe his eyes, but his mind knew all too well that the Doctor wasn't lying. He could indeed travel through time. It was a bit too much for him. "Take me back."

The Doctor nodded. "Alright, c'mon."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX

When the Doctor returned future Odin to his proper place in time, he figured it would be time to explain more. "Why did you tell all this to me?" Odin asked.

"Because, in the future, I travel with your son, Loki. He... Well, he did a few bad things. I wanted to come back to his past to know why."

"What 'few bad things'?" Odin asked.

"Spoilers," the Doctor chimed in with a very River Song-like edge to it. Odin didn't understand, but the Doctor didn't bother explaining it to him. "I only told you so that if I happen to get caught again in the future, you'd recognize me and you would know my mission."

"If you can travel in time, why can't you simply stop him from doing those bad things?" Odin asked.

"Because I can't interfere with my own timeline. By the time I met him, it was too late for me to change anything that had happened. So now I'm traveling through his timeline so I can know how to change him as he is."

Odin thought about it very deeply for a moment. "You must swear you mean no harm to my son."

"I swear."

"If I catch you doing anything to hurt him, you will be executed immediately," Odin said. The Doctor nodded in understanding.

"Now, if you don't mind, I have a 'mission' to complete," the Doctor said before stepping back into the TARDIS. "Remember me, m'kay?" he said. Odin nodded.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Doctor didn't really keep check of exactly how far into the future he had traveled, but he assumed Loki would've been a human's equivalent of 10 or 11 around now. For his own safety, he wore a small perception filter around his neck. It was one of the ones that made people want to avoid looking at him, and so as long as he stuck to the shadows no one would notice. He aimlessly wandered around the castle for a while, seeing if he could locate his little assistant. It wasn't until about half an hour of wandering when he found him. Loki was with Thor and a few of his friends. The Doctor quickly hid himself behind a large, decorative column in the hall so he could listen in on their conversation.

Loki was being left out of whatever conversation Thor and his friends were having. He also seemed to be walking behind the group. However, he soon saw him run up to his older brother and grab his arm. Loki whispered something into Thor's ear, then walked away from the group. When he was out of sight, one of Thor's friends started giggling. "How odd. He will never have friends," a young girl commented rudely. The young group of friends continued walking toward their destination.

"Be careful how you speak. That is my brother," Thor said, not in the least bit amused.

"Come on! You cannot ignore it, you know your brother is... Well, different. He always sits around and reads books. He could never be like you, Thor."

"Do not say that! He could be just as good as me one day," Thor insisted. His friends payed him no mind and instead chose to continue giggling.

"But he always lurks in shadows," a young boy said. Afterwards, he threw a small hood over his head and folded his arms across his chest. He had a pout on his face, and he began to make fun of Loki in a very odd voice. "I'm Loki, and I'm all alone because I'm so obsessed with my brother!" He grabbed Thor's arm and began whining, "They're making fun of me! Wah, wah! They thing I'm a cry baby!" The young boy pretended he was crying.

This elicited giggles from everyone in the group, including Thor. "You're right, he does cry a lot. I just wish he wouldn't..." at this point, the small group of kids walked too far away for the Doctor to understand what they were saying. It was then that he saw Loki step out from behind the column adjacent to him._ He might've seen me!, _the Doctor thought as he had a mini panic attack and shifted himself closer to the column.

Young Loki's little face was red with anger. "I don't cry a lot," he mumbled through a shaky breath. The young boy buried his face in his hands and walked the opposite way Thor and his friends had been walking. The Doctor couldn't help but pity him, and he wished he could help, but he needed to get back to the TARDIS before someone else found out where it was. Luckily for him, no one had.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Loki should've been near adulthood, the human equivalent of about 15 or 16. The Doctor had no idea how old he actually was, and frankly, he didn't want to do the math. It was the same as last time he had traveled, with his chosen parking spot being completely devoid of all life (which wasn't a bad thing.) The halls were empty, as to be expected. The Doctor ended up walking around much longer than he had last time._ I'm wasting my time, _the Doctor thought with a small sigh. He was going to turn around when he decided to go to the throne room, maybe freak out Odin a bit.

His plan did not go as expected. When he reached the throne room, he was about to open the large doors when he heard Odin yell loudly. The Doctor pressed his ear against the door and listened.

"I'm... I'm sorry," the Doctor could barely hear Loki mumble.

"How could you let this happen? You're a disgrace!" Odin practically screamed at him. The Doctor flinched at the pure rage that laced the king's voice.

"I really thought I could outrun Svadilfari, I r-"

"SILENCE!" Odin shouted, causing Loki to immediately shut up. "Your actions are nothing short of disgusting and barbaric."

"I didn't want this to happen!" Loki desperately shouted at his father.

_Why won't either of them just say what happened already?!, _the Doctor thought angrily.

"He... Svadilfari... Didn't give me a chance to run. He just sort of... Took over..." Loki's voice was shaky and quiet. "It's getting harder to hide."

There was complete silence in the room for a few moments. Then, Odin spoke again. "I will not have your company again until you have such labour."

"But, what if I don't have the magic to become a mare again?"

_WHAT?! _The Doctor was _very _confused.

"I may not have the magic needed to bear a child. Please, father, I need your help." Loki was begging now.

Oh. _Oh_. The Doctor was suddenly very glad he wasn't there to see the "dealings" between Loki and this Svadilfari character.

Around this time, Frigga decided it was a good time for her input. "Loki, darling, I'll help you with your child."

"You would do no such thing, Frigga," Odin demanded.

"You may be upset, but it is _my_ obligation to help _my_ child when you will not, you stubborn bull," Frigga said sternly. "Come, dear, I'll take you to the nursery."

Time to disappear, the Doctor thought as he dashed away. He was out of sight just in time for Loki and Frigga to exit the room. He could see a stream of tears running down his face. Frigga held him close and patted him lovingly. The Doctor could just barely see Loki's belly poking out. _Do these things always end with him crying? I certainly hope not. _The Doctor wanted to get out of there as fast as he could. If he kept on ending up in these emotionally traumatic spots, he was going to lose his mind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When the TARDIS touched down again, the Doctor was disappointed to find that there were people around his TARDIS this time. He sincerely hoped they had thought nothing of the TARDIS's noises. When he stepped outside, he was pleased to see no one had thought to investigate. Making sure he had his psychic paper and perception filter on him, the Doctor began to search for his little companion again. He stepped out into the hall, and was almost seen by a small group of people. He quickly pulled himself back into the small corridor he parked the TARDIS in and pushed himself up against the dark wall.

"Today, I shall win the fight, I assure you," he heard Thor say confidently.

The Doctor heard someone sigh. "But we are only training," a man with a deep voice said.

"And I do not care." Thor chuckled. "This hammer is a fine one. I shall have a grand time testing her out."

_Oh dear. Mjolnir_, the Doctor thought with exasperation.

"Oh, you. I'm not so sure you are ready to wield such a weapon," a woman said with an exasperation in her voice similar to the Doctor's.

"Of course I am! If a king has deemed me responsible enough, then surely I am." The Doctor could just hear a disgustingly smug grin behind those words.

"He's your father. Of course he thinks you're ready."

"You are simply envious of me."

_And I'm getting bored_, the Doctor thought. He wished the group would hurry up and pass him by so he could go see Loki. Hopefully, on this seemingly normal day, he wouldn't be curled up in a fetal position and crying because of some other emotionally traumatizing problems. The group went by, not in the least bit suspicious why the words "Police Public Call Box" were glowing in a dark little corridor, allowing the Doctor to begin his search again.

After his first two trips, it became quite clear why Loki seemed so aloof. Even though the Doctor personally told Odin he'd be watching, Odin still managed to be a poor excuse for a father. After walking for a bit, he saw Loki dash through a hall. He had another one of his mini panic attacks as he hid himself just long enough for Loki to pass him by. He seemed to be heading somewhere of importance.

It surprised the Doctor, how healthy Loki looked before his ordeal on Earth. Instead of ghostly, sunken cheeks and heavy bags under his eyes, his skin was a healthy cream color and he looked alive and well. It was nice to see him so lively for once. His lack of malice in general made him seem like an enjoyable person to hang around. However, despite his positive appearance, he was acting very secretive._ This is interesting._

The Doctor followed Loki through the halls. He knew he had to be very careful, but Loki didn't seem to notice anything. It didn't take him long to figure out the adolescent Jotun was on his way toward the throne room. When he entered, he saw his father sitting on the throne. However, the person he was looking for was apparently not there. "Where is Frigga?" Loki asked.

"In the garden," Odin wearily answered. "You are not visiting her to practice any magic, are you?"

"No," Loki lied. Of course he was going to practice magic with her. Who else did he have to confide in?

"I told you not to use that any seidr, Loki. It is a woman's weapon."

"You clearly underestimate it," Loki murmured before leaving the room.

Assuming Loki was heading for the garden, the Doctor followed him. However, Loki met Frigga on her way back from the garden. "Hello, Loki, is there anything-"

Loki leaned close to her ear and whispered something. Her face scrunched up a bit in confusion. Then, she looked over Loki's shoulder a bit. It looked like she was struggling with whatever she was trying to see. "No, I can't," she said suddenly. "It's like my eyes won't let me."

"Watch." Loki suddenly whipped around and sent a few daggers flying in the Doctor's direction. He barely had time to pull back and hide behind a column.

"HYARG!" the Doctor yelled before he could stop himself.

"See? He's been following me. I can't seem to get a good look at him, either." Loki began walking in the Doctor's direction. "Show yourself," he demanded suddenly.

_No, no, no, this isn't supposed to happen!, _the Doctor thought as he panicked. Without hesitation, he ran out from behind the column and made a mad dash for the throne room. _Please don't let him remember my blue coat, please don't... No, he would've called me out on that when I put the coat on. Hmm, I wonder if he'll remember this when I ask him about it... Doh, shut up and run! _He was so busy thinking that he violently threw himself into Thor's chest and stumbled back a few steps. Without thinking, he pushed past the buff man and continued running.

"Stop him!" Loki yelled. Luckily for the Doctor, Thor paused Loki mid-chase to ask him what was going on, which gave him time to run.

The Doctor ran up to a guard and quickly took his dark blue coat off. "Merry Christmas," he said before forcefully putting the coat on the guard.

"Wait... What... Stop!" the guard protested, but didn't have the time or strength to stop the adrenalized Doctor. As soon as his work was done, he continued running as fast as he could. He finally found his TARDIS and quickly locked himself inside. He couldn't waste a second getting out of there as fast as possible, for he didn't want to risk making Loki remember the TARDIS and possibly have something big change in the space-time continuum (whatever that change may be.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX

The Doctor exited his TARDIS and set himself straight to work. He didn't search too much before he found that Loki and Thor were in a training arena. Odin had been supervising them. Loki had nothing more than two small daggers, whereas Thor was wielding a large, two-handed sword.

It was interesting to watch them duel. Thor's massive and extremely muscular physique gave him lots of strength and made his swing a lethal one; however, Loki's lithe body, wicked agility, and seemingly endless supply of stamina made him a formidable opponent for his older brother. Thor was on the offense for the majority of the battle, but it was obvious to see his lack of progress was wearing him out. Because of this, Loki was soon able to send himself barreling into his brother's chest, effectively knocking the larger man to the ground and pinning him down. Loki held a dagger to his brother's throat and grinned at his success.

Both sons looked up to Odin, expecting a compliment from their father. Odin grunted. "Thor, you should have done better."

Loki's smile faltered a bit. "But... Father... I did it! I finally beat Thor without using my magic!"

"That you did," Odin said, with nothing else to say afterwards. Loki was sorely disappointed, but he wouldn't let it show. He finally did something right in his father's eyes, and he couldn't even get a thumbs-up._ Lousy bastard_, the Doctor thought as he watched the two brothers get up.

"You did very well, Loki," Thor spoke with all honesty. Loki quietly thanked him, then pulled his daggers out. Thor picked his sword up and held it outwards.

Without even stopping to take a break, they both began fighting again. This proved to be a very bad thing for Loki, who was finally losing his speed. Without his magic, speed was his only friend in these battles. Thor sent a quick swing of his sword in Loki's direction, which Loki easily dodged. However, while dodging his brother's attack, he lost his footing for a split second. This was enough for Thor to drastically overpower him.

Thor knocked Loki to the ground with a hard knock to his younger brother's shoulder with the flat edge of his blade. Thor had pinned his younger brother down before Loki had the chance to get up. Odin clapped with approval.

"Well done, Thor," Odin said as he stood up and walked over toward the two.

The minute these words left Odin's mouth, Loki angrily pushed his brother off of him and stormed out of the room. Odin and Thor watched with disinterest as he slammed the arena doors behind him. Soon afterwards, they returned their attention to each other. Odin spent his time congratulating Thor. When Thor left, the Doctor walked out of his little hiding spot. He and the king were the only two in the room.

"Doctor!" Odin shouted in surprise. "I have not seen you in so long, I had almost forgotten you existed."

"Hmm. Right." The Doctor walked closer to Odin. "I gave you Loki with the intention of having you raise him as one of your own, and yet you continue to show clear favoritism. I'm not very happy about this."

"I show no favoritism," Odin defended, but the Doctor wouldn't hear it. He had seen it himself, and Odin was spoiling Thor.

"Why do you do that? It's obvious to everyone _except you _that you treat Thor better," the Doctor said as he folded his arms across his chest.

Odin sighed. "It is because, as much as I want to think of Loki as my son, in my heart I still know he is the runt offspring of the enemy."

"Lies. Geez, now I know where Loki learned it." The Doctor leaned close to Odin and whispered, as though someone might over hear them, "Does Frigga know of Jord?"

"How do you know of her?!" Odin demanded to know. "No one, and I mean_ no one _but Frigga, Jord, and I know of that little incident."

"Oh, I've met very Jord. Lovely woman, albeit odd. She would make a nice cat person." The Doctor paused for a minute as though he was thinking over it, then shook his head. "You can't tell me you don't like Loki because he's Jotun. Tell me, do you use magic to keep Thor an Aesir size as well?"

Odin was getting very nervous now. "No. That is his natural size. And I still feel more love for Thor because he is actually my son."

"And Frigga didn't mind that you had slept with Jord?"

"... Yes, but she forgave me. It was on the eve of a battle I did not believe I would return from."

"Ha! I've heard that one before," the Doctor said with a fake laugh. His expression suddenly turned dark and serious. "So you hate Loki because he's 50% more giant than Thor. How hypocritical and biased. Frigga isn't related to either of them and she still loves them both more than you do."

Odin didn't say a word. The Doctor, pleased with his work, left the arena.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX

This time, when the TARDIS landed, it was in a section of the kingdom that was more secluded than the rest. "Now you're thinking," the Doctor said with a small chuckle as he patted the side of the TARDIS. He went about attempting to locate his companion, as was now usual.

Instead of taking the usual route, the Doctor was lost because of the new location the TARDIS dropped him off in and couldn't recognize most of the corridors. There were also no guards standing around this part of the castle._ Is it forbidden?, _the Doctor thought as he continued walking through. The silence was eerie. One corridor took him to a different coloured area all together. The majority of the halls were constructed of a metal that looked like gold (but obviously wasn't, or else it would bend and mold to everyone's foot prints), but this area was made out of some other kind of metal the Doctor wasn't sure he could identify. There was a long walkway leading into a rectangular room. The entire room around it was large and circular, as though it had been carved into the ground. It was possibly the oddest building he saw in Asgard. He decided to dig deeper.

When he reached the end of the walkway, he saw two guards walk out of the room. He quickly hid himself behind one of the strange rectangular pieces of metal on the walkway, successfully concealing himself. They continued to walk down the walkway. When he thought they were far away enough, the Doctor ran inside the room. Luckily for him, it wasn't occupied by anyone else. The room itself was very odd. There were small walkways behind columns in the side of the room, with artifacts on large "stone" pedestals. These weren't what caught his interest, though. What he found so interesting was the artifact at the end of the room. It was a semitransparent blue box with a white light glowing within it. There were two handles on the side, making it perfect for wielding. The wall behind it was nothing but a white abyss with strange metal spikes lining it. The Doctor was about to pick up the box on the pedestal until he heard more footsteps. He went to hide behind one of the columns.

Loki walked into the room and headed straight for the box. He seemed reluctant to pick it up, slightly shaking his head as he did so. The box made a strange noise as he placed his hands on the handles. Loki's breathing became heavier as he barely lifted it off of its pedestal. The Doctor noticed Loki's fingers were turning blue. _So now he knows. _

"Stop!" the Doctor heard Odin yell. He hadn't even noticed Odin was in the room. Loki's eyes got wide at the sound of his father's voice.

"Am I cursed?" Loki asked. The Doctor saw the edges of his face begin to turn into the dark blue colour of a Jotun.

"No," Odin replied.

With shaky breaths, Loki set the box back down on the pedestal. "What am I?"

"You're my son," Odin answered.

Loki turned around to face his father. The blue melted from his face. "What more than that?" He began walking toward Odin. "The casket wasn't the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?"

"No. In the aftermath of the battle, I went to the temple and I found a baby."

_You heard my screwdriver and found the baby_, the Doctor mentally corrected him.

"Small, for a giant's offspring. Abandoned and suffering, left to die. Laufey's son."

"Laufey's son," Loki repeated.

"Yes."

"Why?" Loki softly demanded. His breathing became very heavy. "You were knee-deep in Jotun blood, why would you take me?"

"You were an innocent child," Odin said.

"No, you took me for a purpose. What was it?" There was a momentary silence. "TELL ME!" Loki yelled suddenly, a very painful and emotion filled yell. The intensity of the situation was beginning to get to the Doctor.

"I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day, bring about an alliance, bring about a permanent peace through you."

"What?" Loki murmured. The Doctor could hear tears in his voice. _I'm gonna start crying if this kind of stuff doesn't stop._

"But those plans no longer matter." The Doctor was _very angry _with Odin. He led Odin to Loki with the intention of having Odin raise him fairly, as he told Odin himself, but with the few memories he'd been through, he could clearly see Odin had not been doing such. Now, he knew that his purposes for taking Loki had nothing to do with the boy's own well-being. _I never should've let this happen_, the Doctor thought, and felt very guilty.

"So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me?"

"Why do you twist my words?"

"You could've told me what I was from the beginning! Why didn't you?!"

"You're my son. I wanted only to protect you from the truth." Odin said these words with no emotion in his voice. The Doctor's chest felt heavy. He didn't often cry over other people's problems, but after all he had witnessed, it was suddenly becoming _very hard _to hold back tears.

"W-what? Because I-I-I'm the monster parents tell their ch-children about at night?"

"No," Odin tried to say, but Loki wouldn't listen._ And rightfully so._

"You know, it all makes sense now!" Loki hatefully spat. "Why you favored Thor all these years, because no matter how much you claimed to love me, you could've had a frost giant sitting on the throne of Asgard!" _As opposed to your half-giant brother?, _the Doctor thought.

As Loki had been yelling all of this, Odin began to collapse. The Doctor couldn't understand why, but he seemed to be very fatigued. The Doctor quietly stepped out from behind his hiding spot and folded his arms over his chest. As Odin was falling, he got a quick glance at the Doctor, and that was all he needed, for the Doctor's face said it all: _I'm very disappointed in you_.

Loki kneeled to his fallen step father and placed his hand on his father's. A look of genuine concern appeared on his face. "GUARDS!" Loki yelled. "Guards, please help!" The Doctor couldn't help but notice the last part sounded a bit forced. Two guards rushed in to collect Odin. Loki followed them out.

The Doctor collapsed to his knees and buried his face in his hands. _I don't want to dig any deeper_, he thought as he felt a few hot tears well up in his eyes. _This... This is too much. I don't even want to imagine what this must feel like for Loki..._ The Doctor wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, which he did.

**AN: I had no idea how long this chapter was.**


	6. Revelation

**AN: I just wanted to let all my reviewers know that, that one extra minute you take to let me know how I'm doing makes me a very happy woman. :DD**

The TARDIS touched down in New York. The Doctor felt queasy after witnessing all that he did, but he still needed to find Loki. It was day time, so the Doctor knew he came back too late. "Oh, Loki's probably so mad at me," the Doctor thought as he began walking through the streets. The Jotun wasn't where the Doctor left him. _Where would he go?, _the Doctor asked himself, then smiled._ I know._

A small bell rang as the Doctor entered the very same ice cream parlour he first took Loki too. This time, there was a young man standing at the counter. "Hey there, can I help you?" he asked indifferently.

"I'm looking for a friend of mine. He has short black hair and has unusually bright green eyes, he wears stuff that looks like it came from some sort of hipster store."

One of the staff, a middle-aged woman, walked up behind the man. "Yes, I have. He comes here every day. He already visited today. Poor baby's probably never eaten in his life; our entire stock of sherbet is gone because of him!" The woman chuckled.

"Actually," the teenage boy began, "I think he lives in my apartment. Does he talk to himself a lot?"

"Erm... No," the Doctor said, sincerely hoping this kid actually wasn't talking about Loki.

"You sure? I swear the guy's got contacts, his eyes practically glow in the dark. He also wears silver metal things on his arms right here," the man said while pointing to his forearms.

"Oh, dear," the Doctor said, his face flushing. "Yes, that's him."

"Well, you need to talk to him about his problem. He's whispering to his invisible people 24/7. I can sometimes catch him having arguments with his imaginary friends. It freaks me out."

"Uh, which apartment do you live in?"

"The one right next to here. He's on the fifth floor, apartment 302 I think."

"Thanks." The Doctor, embarrassed, left the ice cream parlour. _How on earth did he get an apartment with nothing but a credit card?, _the Doctor thought, remembering Loki's only means of paying for anything was with the credit card the Doctor gave him. _Oh, why do I even bother?_

There was something that the Doctor was worried about more than Loki talking to himself, though. Apparently, he was so late for picking Loki up, that he had time to get an apartment/become acquainted with ice cream parlour employees.

When the Doctor walked into the apartment in question, he cringed at how run-down the place seemed to be._ You'd think a man with unlimited money could pick a better home than this_. Because the place lacked elevators, the Doctor began to dash up the stairwell until he got to the third floor.

"302, 302..." the Doctor murmured under his breath as he closely looked at each door for the correct room number. When he reached the right door, he pressed his ear against the door. He had no idea what Loki was saying, but whatever it was, it sounded absolutely horrifying. _Oh, no..._

The Doctor tried to open the door, but found it was locked. After a quick twist or two from his sonic screwdriver, he pushed the door open to reveal what was actually not a bad apartment. However, the mountainous piles of empty food containers laying around made the place look like a pig sty. "Loki?" the Doctor cried out. No reply. The Doctor found the room in which Loki was partaking in what the Doctor guessed could only be some sort of 'magic ritual'.

When he opened the door, the amount of colorful lights and scrolls floating around the room was overwhelming. He couldn't see anything in the room for a few seconds. The Doctor waved the flying serpentine lights away just long enough to get a peek at Loki who was seated in the center of the room. "Loki! What on earth have you been doing?"

He walked closer to the Jotun, who was sitting with his legs crossed in the center of the floor and a large, dusty book open in front of him. Loki's eyes were closed, but he was saying something that sounded harsh. "Erm... Loki?" The man didn't reply. Next to him was an oriental incense burner with the images of ornate purple and blue dragons wrapping around it. In it he had a stick of incense that smelled like lavender. All around him in the room was unfathomably large piles of empty food containers, lush, exotic greenery of all sorts, and unusually large catepillar cocoons. Some of the plants were so large and overgrown that their vines wrapped around Loki's legs and torso, making it look like he was grown from the plants. Suddenly, Loki stopped speaking. He opened his eyes and looked to the ceiling.

Next to him, a huge vine lowered itself from the ceiling. The tip of the vine almost touched the floor. On the vine blossomed beautiful hooked jade flowers. The Doctor watched as some of the flowers unfolded wings and took off in the form of butterflies. They flitted around in the room, oblivious to the overabundance of lights and scrolls. Loki smiled and gestured toward the vine. He slowly turned his head to face the Doctor. "Ta-da," he said quietly, then chuckled at the Doctor's awe. The Doctor could see that Loki's eyes were glazed over.

"That was amazing. All of this," the Doctor said, gesturing to the thriving life in the room, "is amazing. How'd you do it?"

Loki chuckled lightly and held up the book in front of him. "This. I found lots of new things to practice in it."

The Doctor grabbed the book and began flipping through it. It had Old Norse text in it (translated to Gallifreyan for the Doctor, by the one and only TARDIS) with words and spells the Doctor himself couldn't comprehend. "I better not here you chanting up demons in the middle of the night," the Doctor said as he shut the book and handed it to Loki.

Instead of making some sort of snarky retort, Loki doubled over laughing hysterically. He was laughing so hard tears came to his eyes. The Doctor stood there awkwardly, wondering what Loki was laughing about. Finally, after catching his breath, Loki attempted to answer. "You, Doctor, you're... Tee hee hee... A funny man." He grabbed an unopened bag of chips nearby and began shoving them in his face like he'd never eaten before. Crumbs fell all over him as he viciously crammed chips in his mouth. "Nrmf, mm so hurngrymph," Loki tried to say through the chips.

"Get up," the Doctor said while pulling Loki to his feet. The Jotun stumbled, then held onto the Doctor. "C'mon, I'm getting you out of here."

"No! I like it in here," Loki argued, but didn't fight as the Doctor led him out of the room. He shut the door behind himself, somewhat barricading the show of lights from the living room. The Doctor tossed Loki onto the couch. "I'm still sooooo hungry," Loki complained.

"You wait here. I'll dig through the kitchen to see if there's anything I can get you," the Doctor said.

The Doctor walked into the kitchen. It was just as filthy as the rest of the house, but he figured if he salvaged enough he would be able to find more food. He first went to the fridge which, to his surprise, he found to be completely empty. _That dingbat doesn't know how to use the fridge, _the Doctor thought. He shut the fridge and went about to digging through the cabinets. He regretted that idea, for as soon as he opened the first cabinet, he was torrented with tons of empty boxes of pudding and various pudding cups. "Oh, for goodness' sake, who leaves this much food laying around their house?! Loki, you are a slop!"

After giving up on the food in the kitchen, the Doctor sighed in defeat and entered the living room. There, he found Loki ravenously devouring crab rangoon, mercilessly smothering the food item in sweet and sour sauce before cramming two or three in his mouth at a time. He barely gave himself time to chew before repeating the process. As soon as he finished the crab rangoon, he immediately grabbed a nearby take-out box of chicken lo mein and slurped handfuls of the noodles at a gut-wrenching pace. The Doctor thought the sight was going to make him puke. "Oh, that's just gross...," he said as some of the noodles splattered against Loki's chest.

Loki stopped mid-chew and made very awkward eye contact with the Doctor for a few moments before slowly lowering his hand from his mouth and letting the noodles fall back in his take-out box. His cheeks turned red as he asked, "Erm... Could you get me a towel?"

"Sure." The Doctor chuckled at Loki's embarassment. He recalled seeing some clean towels folded up in one of the kitchen drawers and decided to retrieve one of those. When he returned, he saw Loki was downing the noodles with a fork. The Doctor handed Loki the towel, who nodded in thanks. After wiping his hands, shirt, and face on the towel and finishing off the lo mein, Loki stopped eating to talk to the Doctor, who had seated himself on a couch adjacent to the one Loki was on.

"So... You finally came back," Loki mused, eyeing a nearby box of caramel popcorn.

"I was wondering about that. Exactly how long was I gone?"

"Two weeks, give or take a few days."

The Doctor was relieved. "Phew. I thought I was gone longer than that. Wait... How did you eat this much food in two weeks?!"

"You know of my malnourishment. It is torture, constantly being hungry as a wolf yet never able to be fully satisfied." Loki grinned evilly. "To enter an eating contest with me and hope to win would be suicide."

"Where did you get that book?" The Doctor wanted to change the subject, feeling if they talked about food anymore he would get sick.

"I asked my neighbor if humans would have anything to help me out with my spells. Of course, I worded it differently, but he still seemed perturbed for whatever reason. He told me he would tell me of a place if I swore to never speak to him again, to which I agreed. I was led to an old library with many odd books. This one was in the archive section. Naturally, I used my quick wits and unlimited charm to obtain ownership of this wonderful spell book." He chuckled and patted the book, eyeing a nearby box of caramel popcorn with a dangerous longing while doing so. "I do plan on keeping this book, though."

"You know you're still not performing any rituals, good or bad, on the TARDIS," the Doctor said, determined to keep anything harmful out of his sexy.

"Killjoy," Loki murmured angrily, then calmed down and grabbed the box of caramel popcorn nearby and layed himself down on the couch. Loki ate a handful of popcorn before continuing, "I swear I will not use it while on board your TARDIS. It is for educational purposes early."

"Alright, you can keep it."

"Yay," Loki said unceremoniously. He was about to grab another handful of popcorn until he paused and asked, "Where did you go?" His face contorted as he glared at the Doctor, waiting for his answer.

The Doctor chuckled. "It's not important. You wouldn't know the place, anyway."

Loki set down the box of popcorn, his hunger forgotten. He stood up and slowly approached the Doctor. "Oh no, Doctor, it's very important." He abruptly grabbed the Doctor by the collar of his jacket and jerked him up so that they were face-to-face. He then pushed the Doctor against the wall. "It must be _extremely important _if it meant leaving me to rot in this stinking realm for two weeks! _Where _did you go?!"

"I swear, you wouldn't-"

"TELL ME!" Loki shrieked maliciously as he grabbed the Doctor's neck slammed his head against the wall. The Doctor couldn't help but notice it was with the same tone of voice he used with Odin, minus the tears.

"Owww! Jotunheim! I was on Jotunheim!" the Doctor lied while attempting to pry Loki's hands from around his neck. _Geez, how did he get so mad this fast?!_

"Why?!"

"To talk to your brother, Helblindi," the Doctor continued to lie. Sure, he had heard of Laufey's other children, but either because of his adoption or stunted growth, Loki managed to slip his way through the Doctor's knowledge.

"About what?"

"About you! I asked if you and he had a good relationship, and he just laughed and told me to leave."

Loki, who had been very menacing only moments before, calmed down a bit. "Is that all?" The Doctor nodded vigorously. Loki let go of his lethal grip and backed away. "Sorry. I simply do not like staying in this wretched place. Not for extended lengths of time."

The Doctor cleared out his throat. "It's fine. We're about to leave anyway. C'mon, I parked the TARDIS close to that little ice cream shop." He winked. "I heard you were absolutely in _love _with their sherbet."

"Oh yes, the orange is my favorite," Loki said with a grin. "You know what I like better?"

"Hmm?"

The Jotun held his hands up in the air, and above them materialized a pudding cup. "This stuff. It is amazing, though it isn't very filling." He made a spoon materialize and began to eat his pudding.

The two walked together in a comfortable silence as they made their way to the TARDIS. The Doctor was concocting a plan, possibly a dangerous one, and he wasn't so sure if he should do it. It was nothing that would get them physically hurt, but he couldn't say much for the emotional aspect of it.

When they entered the TARDIS, the Doctor began to speak. "Uh... Loki..."

"Yes, Doctor?" Loki asked after licking his spoon clean of any extra pudding.

"Let's see, how do I put this... I think that, no matter what anyone does, they always deserve an extra chance," the Doctor began. Loki furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "No matter what one's faults are, they always deserve to have a place to belong." Thinking back to all of those horrible things the Doctor saw, it somehow made it easier to accept that Loki wasn't the best of people. The Doctor wished to help him change that. He felt he was obligated to change Loki for the better.

"Doctor, What are you saying?" Loki didn't understand the Doctor's sudden outburst of sentiment.

"What I'm saying is..." The Doctor reached inside his peacoat and pulled out a small silver key. He grabbed Loki's pale, bony hand and placed the key in his palm. "Welcome home." He smiled and pulled Loki in for a hug.

Loki was extremely confused. Instead of returning the hug, he stood there trying to process what just happened. "I don't get it," Loki said when the Doctor pulled away.

"That," the Doctor pointed to the small key in Loki's hands, "is the key to the TARDIS. You'll have 24/7 access to it." He gestured to one of the hallways leading into the many different rooms of the TARDIS. "Pick out which bedroom you want. Mine's the one with the circular writing on it, so don't go in it, okay?"

"Oh-Okay," Loki said, clutching the key close to his chest. "Erm, thanks." He waved his key and made it disappear. "I'll go and select a room."

The Doctor nodded and walked over to the control board. He watched as Loki walked up the stairs and disappeared into the hall. _Should I really put him through something like that?_, the Doctor wondered as he gave some more thought to his plan from earlier. _Well, I can't hide it forever..._

While the Doctor was knee-deep in thought, Loki strolled through the hall, peeking in each room. Not all of them were bedrooms. Loki was quite pleased to see the Doctor had a library in his TARDIS. After walking through for two or so minutes, Loki found a room. It had a flamboyant blue and gold theme, giving off a very prideful feel. He walked over to the single person bed and sat down on it. After subconciously fluffing the pillow a bit, he waved his hand and made the TARDIS key appear. _"No matter what one's faults are, they always deserve an extra chance." _The Doctor's words from earlier rang in his head. _Why did he say that?_, Loki thought. He lifted a hand up to his face and felt a tear running down his hollow cheek. He snarled at himself and wiped it away.

_That idiot, _Loki thought as a smug, wicked grin spread across his face. _If he already trusts me with this key, then I'll soon be able to extract information on how to operate the TARDIS. _Loki twirled the key around between his delicate fingers. _He'll be dead before he knows it. _"Eh heh heh," Loki chuckled aloud. _Kill the Doctor and take the TARDIS._

After making the key disappear again, Loki returned to the Doctor. "I've chosen my room."

"Ah," the Doctor said as he began to press buttons. "Which one did you get?"

"The blue and gold one with a single person bed," Loki replied as he walked up next to the Doctor. "It's really quite nice."

"Hmm." The Doctor stopped what he was doing momentarily and pressed a finger to his chin. "I think I know which one you're talking about." He immediately continued working out all of the little knobs and levers on the TARDIS control board.

"Well, where are we going?" Loki asked as he grabbed onto the rail to prepare for a bumpy ride.

_Oh dear. _The Doctor, who had focused on trying to rememeber the room Loki had picked, had almost forgotten exactly where they were going. "You'll see," the Doctor answered, keeping a false smile on his face. _I'm gonna need my sword for this one, _the Doctor thought worriedly. He sincerely hoped he was doing the right thing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When the TARDIS touched down, the Doctor rushed back to his room. "Hold on, I need to get something real quick," the Doctor said as he went to retrieve his sword.

Loki, overwhelmed with curiousity, took a peek outside. His heart began to hammer against his ribcage as he recognized his surroundings. _No, no, no..._

After Loki saw the Doctor return, he gave him a murderous glare. He raised his hands up as though he was going to grab the Doctor's neck again. "Why did you bring me here?! _How did you know-_"

The Doctor held out his sword. "No sudden movements, slick," he said. "I brought you here because you need to collect some some of your belongings."

"How long did you know about this before you found me?!" Loki demanded. The room they landed in was his room in the castle on Asgard.

"I didn't know when I first found you. I had no clue until we went to the Chitauri warship."

"So _that's _what your secret errands were for!" Loki was outraged.

"No, just listen!" the Doctor pleaded. "I just want to help. I went to various points of your past..."

"So you've been _stalking _me as well?"

"No! No, no! Shut up and stop making assumptions!" Loki folded his arms across his chest angrily. The Doctor cautiously lowered his sword. "Thank you. I wanted to know if you had any particular reason for what you did. Just curiousity, I guess. I saw the way you were treated and I agree whole-heartedly that it was _unfair _and _unjust._ I honestly want nothing more than to help you. Not everyone looks down on you because you're different, Loki. You're not as worthless as your 'family' made you out to be. You know, in fifteen hundred years of time and space and I've never met anybody who wasn't important before, and you're no exception."

_Damn, _Loki thought. _So he probably already expects something. _He took a deep, shaky breath. "Let's just get my stuff and get out of here," he said as he exited the TARDIS to begin packing.

"Alright. I've got someone to go visit real quick," the Doctor said. He was about to leave the room when he turned to Loki with a sly grin on his face and asked, "Do you remember that time you chased that guy with the blue coat because he was following you around?"

"Yes, w-" Loki cut himself off as he pieced it together. "You stinking little..." Loki began to threaten, but the Doctor bolted out of the room cackling like a madman.

The Doctor stopped running after a while. He pulled his perception filter out of his pocket and placed it around his neck. Weaving his way through the familiar golden halls, the Doctor made his way to the grand throne room in which Odin spent most of his time.

When he arrived, he was pleased to see the only people in the room were Odin, Thor, and a few guards. They were engaging in conversation, so the Doctor patiently waited in the shadows. It didn't take long for the "golden boy" to leave the room, so the Doctor was soon able to take of his perception filter and present himself to Odin.

The king of Asgard looked up to see the Doctor confidently strolling toward him. "We meet again, for the last time," the Doctor announced dramatically, then threw his arms up in the air and let out a deep, evil laugh. "Nay, I'm jesting."

Odin sat there, his face scrunched up in confusion. "I... You... What?"

"I brought Loki. He's packing up in his room and leaving with me," the Doctor said like it was totally normal that he was running off with a prince. Which, for him, it was totally normal, minus the prince part.

"He's here? May I speak to him?" Odin asked.

"Uh... I'm not sure he would be too happy about that. He still passionately hates your stinking guts," the Doctor said matter-of-factly as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Have you asked?"

"No."

"Then I shall," Odin said as he stepped off his throne and walked down the small staircase. "You said he was in his room, did you not?"

"No, no, no, wait, I don't think talking to him is a very good idea," the Doctor said while putting his hands on Odin's chest to try to stop him from walking. Odin swatted his arms away like flies.

"Leave me be. I shall talk to my son."

"Huh, your son?" the Doctor asked with a very rude edge in his voice. This earned a glare from Odin. "I seriously don't think you should be trying to meet up with him."

"I want to apologize for my wrongdoings, and you're not going to stop me." Odin sighed. "I know now that I was wrong to treat him the way I did."

"And why did you treat him that way? What compelled you to be so rude? I want an _honest _answer this time."

Odin tried to walk away, but the Doctor was far more adamant to keep the king still. "I didn't think you were still watching him, since I hadn't seen you in such a long time. Heimdall never informed me of your arrivals."

_That's because of my perception filter, _the Doctor thought. "So you thought it just to hurt your son because I wasn't watching?"

"No! It's not that," Odin said as he pushed past the Doctor and continued walking toward Loki's room. "When he and Thor were kids, they always talked about ruling Asgard together. I knew that would never happen, since Thor was my firstborn. I never meant to make him feel unloved. I simply didn't want him to grow up and expect the throne. Frigga always told me I took it too far, but never listened. The events of the past few years has clarified the situation for me and I see that Frigga was right to say I wasn't a good father to Loki. Please, let me make it up to him."

The Doctor nodded, but he wasn't happy. He just wanted to ask Odin about his behavior, not actually get Odin to talk to Loki again. "Alright. Just so you know, he's real ticked at me right now. I just got done telling him that I've been stalking-erm, watching-over him throughout his life. He didn't handle the news very well."

It wasn't very long until the two men reached Loki's room. Odin cautiously opened the door and peeked inside. He saw the large blue box parked in one corner of the room. Loki was sitting on the bed, folding some clothes and putting them inside a black bag. He looked up and saw Odin and the Doctor standing at the door. His lips curled in disgust at the sight of Odin.

"Get out."

"Loki, I want to apologize," Odin said as he approached the bed.

"Too late," Loki snarled. He said it while folding clothes, never once looking up to face Odin. The Doctor peeked out of the room to make sure no one was listening in, then shut the door behind himself. "I'm leaving with the Doctor and I plan to never return to this filthy place. Keep your empty apologies and hollow words of love; you'd only be wasting your breath."

There was silence between the three for a moment before Odin asked, "Where do you plan to go with the Doctor?"

"Everywhere. Twice." The Doctor chuckled at how serious Loki was when he said it. _Now that's my kind of companion, _he thought. _Oh, there are so many wonderful places to take him. Where do I bring him first?_

"That sounds wonderful." Odin smiled and patted Loki's arm, but Loki recoiled and smacked his arm away. Odin set his hand back down on his lap. "I see that I cannot make amends with you now. Maybe later, but not today." Odin turned to face the Doctor. "Do you think you two could return the very day Loki is released from that box?"

"Yes!" the Doctor loudly chirped, successfully cutting Loki off before he could retort with some sort of insult. "I would be happy to."

"Done. Let's go," Loki growled before throwing his bag over his shoulder and storming into the TARDIS.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Well, you get points for effort, I guess." Odin raised an eyebrow, but the Doctor ignored it. "I'll bring him back when he's less upset. I warned you he was going to be angry."

"I know," Odin said before standing up. "Please promise me you'll keep him safe." Odin was about to leave before he turned around and asked the Doctor, "Will Loki always live in the TARDIS with you?"

"No," the Doctor said. "I can't let myself get too close to my companions, so none of them have ever lived with me. They have always had a real life to return to, and there was always somebody who was anticipating their return. I only have my life of running, and I usually do my running alone. I never keep anyone with me very long so I won't leave those other people my companion left behind waiting and wondering if their loved one was okay. No mater how much I wanted to, I could never bring himself to condemn another living being to my eternity of never belonging anywhere."

Odin slowly nodded. "When you are done traveling with him, will you bring him back here?"

"Certainly not."

The king nodded again. "I understand. Still, I wish for you to continue your visits to let me know how he is doing."

"I will. Good bye," the Doctor said, waving at Odin before stepping into the TARDIS. Loki was nowhere to be seen. "Loki!" the Doctor cried out.

"What?" he heard his raven-haired companion reply from the hallway.

"Ah. There you are," the Doctor said. "I was just wondering where you ran off to. Anyway, I'm preparing for take off. I've got a pretty good idea of where to take you."

"Where is it?"

"Not telling," the Doctor said gleefully as he began his magic with the TARDIS control board. Loki groaned and left the man to his work. "This is my favorite part of finding a new companion."

"What is?" Loki asked.

With a loud cackle from the Doctor, the TARDIS began whooshing as it prepared to take them through space and time. "The part where I get to show you all the fun stuff. With introductions aside, let the real excitement begin!"

**AN: I have to agree with the Doctor. The feeling of knowing he and his new companion are running off to new places for the first time always warms the cockles of my heart. xD**


	7. Lord of the Dead

**AN: I finally have a picture of Loki up (remove the spaces): **** the-consulting-dragon. tumblr image/ 41156906289 He wasn't kidding about the malnutrition.**

The TARDIS landed in the center of a rather large valley. The Doctor poked his head out of the TARDIS to make sure he had landed in the right place, then hastily pulled it back in. He cackled as he pushed up his half-moon glasses on his face. "I haven't been here in quite some time."

"Where are we?" Loki asked.

"Well, since I didn't think I should rush you out of your comfort zone just yet, I took us to Svartalfheim."

"I've been here already!" Loki exclaimed. "How boring. Let's do something else."

"I bet you haven't been to this special place_ in _Svartalfheim that I'm taking you." The Doctor put a finger on his chin. "Come to think of it, not many of the natives have, either."

"Alright. It better be good," Loki said as he walked out of the TARDIS.

"It is! I promise," the Doctor chuckled as he stepped outside. When he was out there, he saw Loki's jaw drop and eyes bulge in surprise. "What did I tell you?" the Doctor said, his smugness audible in his voice.

"This... This is...," Loki tried to say. He gazed at the land scape around them in awe. "It's beautiful."

They were in a valley with fields of silver grasses that glistened in the sun. The field was dotted with trees that looked like acacias, except these had pitch black bark. There was an occasional large burrow close to the side of these trees. In the distance, surrounding the entire valley, were regal mountains topped with snow. From a distance, the mountains looked like they were a dark purple. It was the most beautiful sight Loki had seen.

"I've only seen the rolling hills of green grass and Gothic castles. How come I've never heard of this place?" Loki asked as he continued observing his surroundings.

"I don't know. A lot of the locals seem to think this place is cursed. Maybe because of the grass?" The Doctor stood there, playing around with the idea. "Oh, who cares? Come on, I've got something fun to show you!" He led Loki to one of the large burrows next to the black trees and began whistling.

The ground below the two shuddered violently, but only for a moment. "What was that?" Loki asked.

Before the Doctor could answer, two massive rabbits came bounding out of the hole in the ground. These massive creatures were the size of Shire Horses and towered over both the Doctor and Loki. The first one to jump out was ivory and had pink eyes. The other one was brown with a white streak on its nose and had large tawny eyes. They both constantly sniffled and flopped their ears up and down.

"Bunny racing!" the Doctor cried as he ran up to the brown rabbit and grabbed its fur. The rabbit seemed oblivious to the Doctor climbing its long fur and hoisting himself on its back. "Hurry up and get on the other one!'

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Loki asked as he climbed onto the white rabbit. "I'm not sure I know how to ride one of these. Won't we need saddles?"

"Saddles? Are you kidding me?" The Doctor threw back his head and laughed. He lifted a hand and pointed at the mountains furthest from them. "Last one to those mountains is a Dalek! GO!" the Doctor cackled as his bunny bolted toward the mountains.

Loki panicked. "Uh... Okay... Go?" he nervously asked. The bunny bounded forward at a furious pace, catching Loki off guard. He leaned forward so low that his stomach was almost touching the rabbit's back. His knuckles were white from his death grip on the rabbit's fur._ It's just a rabbit, it's okay, you're not going to die_, Loki tried telling himself, but his pounding heart and racing mind just wouldn't listen.

The rabbit leapt over a tall mound, causing Loki to bounce. "Woah! Stop!" he shouted as his legs flew up in the air. The few seconds he spent airborne was enough to give him a peek at the tree the rabbit was about to crash into. "Come on, turn right! Turn right!" Loki yelled as he jerked the rabbit's fur. He saw the tree get closer. "TURN RIGHT!"

Again, the rabbit amazed Loki and jumped over the tall tree with ease. "Woohoo!" he cried victoriously and laughed. It was then he realized something: the Doctor was right, this was fun. Loki cackled jovially as his bunny gained on the Doctor's. When they were alongside each other, Loki waved at the Doctor, who returned the gesture.

"Betcha can't beat me!" the Doctor yelled as he kicked his rabbit's side to speed it up. They were almost to the mountains. The bases of the massive mountains were only hundreds of feet away.

"Oh, you're on!" Loki replied as he patted his bunny. He was about to jokingly yell an insult at the Doctor until the Doctor's brown bunny crashed into one of the trees and abruptly turned around. The force threw the Doctor off the rabbit. "Stop! Turn around!" Loki yelled as he tugged his rabbit's fur even harder than before, but the bunny didn't yield. It continued bolting toward the mountains. "I command you to stop!" Loki demanded and pulled out small tufts of the rabbit's hair.

Finally, Loki got his rabbit to stop. It began bucking in anger. Loki managed to hold on, but only for a minute. When he finally lost his grip, he flew off the rabbit and toward a rock bed near the base of the mountain. He hit his head against the rock hard enough to make it bleed. The last thing he saw was his rabbit leaving before he blacked out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Something was poking him. Loki was brought back to reality by the sharp poke of a stick against his leg. He tried to open his eyes, but his pounding headache prevented him from doing so. He felt himself being dragged across the ground.

" 'Ee's still soft," a voice in the distance said.

"Of course he is, you dope, he's still alive," another voice said.

"Are you sure ee's alive?" the first voice asked.

"Kid, I'm dead, I've been dead longer than you, I know what dead is, and this guy isn't dead," the second voice said.

"Then shouldn't we kill him first?"

"Nah, he'll bleed to death first. Now quit your yapping and help me bring him to Master!"

Loki bolted upward and yanked his legs out of their grip. "If you two even think of hurting me I'll... I'll..." Loki got a good look at his two captors.

One of the two men was a skeleton. His bones were dirty and appeared to be very fragile. It was wearing nothing but large black boots and a sickle sword hanging from his belt. Instead of having hollow eyes, there was an eerie amethyst glow from within the empty sockets. The other man was decaying; his skin was yellow and torn in places. He was wearing a tattered grey tunic with a small strip of fabric tied around his waist and a pair of brown trousers which, much like the tunic, was also very tattered. This half-dead man had an amethyst glow in his eyes, not unlike his companion.

"Now look what you did! You woke him!" the skeleton yelled, and Loki immediately recognized him as the second voice he had heard.

"How... How is this possible?" Loki asked, more to himself than to his captors. Sure, he had seen a walking dead person, but she_ technically _only_ looked _half-dead.

"Can it, you, we don't wanna 'ear it," the decaying man said. "I oughtta bash you across the face with mih stick." He held out a scrawny branch and pointed it at Loki's nose.

Loki held up a finger and calmly pushed the stick away. "Erm, no thanks. Where am I?" Loki asked as he looked around. They were in a dark hall lined with torches, but he wanted to know their location specifically.

"Een the purple mountains. These are the Master's secret tunnels," the decaying man blurted out.

"Shut up! They're supposed to be secret for a reason, you dope!" the skeleton berated as he pulled his sickle sword off his belt. He held it up to the decaying man's shoulder and chopped his arm off without a second thought.

The decaying man didn't bleed, he simply stood there looking at his detached arm. "I needed that arm."

"Stop complaining and help me bring this man to the Master."

"How can I with only one arm?"

"I can walk, you know," Loki mumbled as he stood up and held a hand to the wound on his head. This would simply have to work until he could find some help. _Help... The Doctor!, _Loki remembered suddenly. Without thinking further, he took off running in the opposite direction his two dead captors were going to take him.

His two captors didn't hesitate. "Get back here, you parasite!" the skeleton screeched as he waved his sword in the air and chased after Loki. He was gaining ground much faster than the decaying man. Loki didn't stop or look back. His running made his head bleed faster. Loki saw the edges of his vision go fuzzy. _No, no, I can't pass out now! _He stumbled and fell face first to the ground, but managed to get back up.

Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough. The skeleton's hand grasped his shoulder. Loki twisted around and smacked the skeleton's hand away hard enough to make the skeleton's arm break at the elbow. He continued running, but his dizzyness got worse with every step, as did the bleeding. As he ran, he saw a light in front of him. _Is this it? _Loki thought as he reached out to the light. He was almost there, only a few feet until he found the safety of the light of day.

The skeleton didn't approve. He attempted to slice Loki's back, only succeeding in cutting through his vest and shirt. Loki's excessive bleeding finally caught up to him. He fell forward, only to fall into someone's embrace. "Ah! Who's this?" the person that held Loki cried out. He wanted to look up to see who caught him, but his vision was too blurred to make out any shapes. "He's bleeding... He's alive! EEK!" The person dropped Loki, causing him to, once again, black out completely.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Doctor stood up and rubbed his head. He looked around to see both bunnies bounding away from him. Loki wasn't on his white rabbit. "Loki!" he called out, but there was no reply. His companion was missing. He ran toward the mountain, hoping his egotistical little companion would be waiting for him at the base._ I hope he didn't run off anywhere_, the Doctor thought.

When he reached the base of the purple mountains, he found that his companion wasn't waiting for him. However, as he looked up and down the side of the mountain, he was pleased to find the entrance to a tunnel. _Well, it's worth a shot_, the Doctor thought as he grabbed a small ledge on the side of the mountain and began a cautious ascent.

It only took half a minute of climbing to reach the tunnel. The Doctor, only slightly out of breath, stood at the entrance to the tunnel. It was lined with torches, but they were spaced out, giving the tunnel an overall caliginous appearance. The Doctor took a deep breath and pulled one of the torches off the wall. His footsteps echoed as he began his search for his companion.

"Loki?" the Doctor said sotto voce. He knew he should speak up if he wanted to find anyone, but the eerie aura given off by the dark empty halls kept him from doing so. Sometimes, there was an occasional turn in the path, or a steady descent into more darkness, but for the most part, the path was straight. The torches along the wall got farther and farther apart, and the Doctor thought the tenebrous atmosphere would drive him mad. His slowly dimming torch and the weak dogtooth spar formations lining the edges of his path were his only company.

The Doctor's journey into darkness continued, albeit slowly. _What am I doing here? He's probably not here!, _the Doctor thought, then turned around. He cried out in surprise and dropped his torch. Instead of the long stretch of emptiness that he had already walked, there was a wall right behind him. The Doctor ran up to it and placed his hands on it. It was solid. _How did this get here?!, _the Doctor thought as he began to panic. There was no turning back. There was only the path forward. The Doctor swallowed his fear and continued walking. After a few more minutes of walking, he turned back around to see that the wall had followed him._ So I really won't be going anywhere any time soon..._

While walking, the Doctor felt his foot hit something. "Ack!" He bent over to see what he had hit. His hearts began pounding with fear when he saw what it was: a decayed human arm that had been sliced clean off at the shoulder. It was also then that the Doctor noticed a trail of blood. He saw that he had been walking along it longer than he thought, and trailed it all the way back to the wall that followed him. "Loki!" he said vociferously, still not wanting to be too loud. He walked forward, hoping his companion was somewhere nearby. It wasn't too long until he found a skeleton arm on the ground, but this one was cut off at the elbow. When he looked up, he saw the dim outline of line shining through a door. _This is it! Loki has to be here!, _the Doctor thought as he began walking toward the door. He could barely make out the sound of people talking behind the door. One of them suddenly screeched loudly, as though in pain. _Loki!_

The Doctor barged in the room, chest heaving with anticipation. "LO!... ki?" The Doctor didn't know how to react. When he walked in, he expected to see his companion tied up or being tortured after he had heard the cry of pain. Instead, he saw his raven-haired companion enjoying a dainty cup of tea while wearing a floriated pink kimono with a dark red sash tied around his midsection. Another person sat at the table, holding an equally fancy tea cup and had a biscuit with a single bite taken out of it. This person was wearing a long purple dress and had the longest, most lush head of pitch-black hair the Doctor thought he had ever seen. The Doctor couldn't tell if this person was a man or a woman, and honestly, at the moment he didn't care. There was also a skeleton dressed in a French maid outfit that was bringing Loki and his friend a tray full of biscuits. The skeleton was missing half an arm. _What is going on?, _the Doctor wondered as he continued staring at the strange sight.

"Uh... I can explain," Loki mumbled as his face flushed with embarrasment.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_One hour prior..._

_Not again_, Loki thought as his pounding headache called him back to reality. His head hurt so much he thought it would burst. He slowly opened his eyes, only to find two others staring right at him. "Ah!" Loki shouted. His eyes were wide, and he was fully aware of his surroundings now.

"EEH! IT'S AWAKE AGAIN!" The person watching him shrieked and held out a broom. "Back! Back, you monster!" It began to softly poke Loki with the broom on his head, not really even hard enough to hurt him.

Loki groaned in exasperation and pain as he pushed the broom away from his head. "Where am I?" he asked as he looked around.

The person lowered the broom slowly, but didn't speak a word. When Loki made a move toward it, it raised the broom back up and slowly backed away. Loki held his hands up. "I'm not going to hurt you. Just... Tell me where I am and what I'm doing here." After some consideration, the person finally decided to speak up.

"You... You're in my lair. M-m-my servants brought you here. You were b-bleeding. I... I mean, actually bleeding." It walked up to Loki and put a hand on the side of his head. It wasn't until then that Loki noticed there were bandages wrapped around his head. "Y-you're alive..."

"Why do you keep saying that like it's a big surprise? Of course I'm alive, aren't you?" Now that Loki mentioned it, he couldn't help but notice that this person in front of him was sickeningly cadaverous, especially for someone living in Svartalfheim. As a matter of fact, this person didn't even have the black/dark purple skin that defined a dark elf, but instead was a dark grey colour.

"Oh no, I-I-I'm not alive. I'm sort of... In between." The person licked its lower lip. Loki cringed to see a serpentine black tongue snake out from between his lips once more to lick its lips again. This person was... Well, creepy. "Oh, dear me! Pardon me for my rude behavior! I don't believe I've introduced myself." It gave a dramatic bow. "I am the Necromancer, the Lord of the Dead."

_Well, that explains some of his odd appearance_, Loki thought as his eyes ran up and down the Necromancer. Its ghastly skin was probably the result of contact with such dark magics. However, it didn't explain the L'Oreal-Paris-luscious ebony hair that fell to its paper-thin waist, or the long blue dress that stopped just below his ankles. Loki would've guessed it was a woman if it didn't have a board-flat chest and a semi-masculine voice. "Uh... I'm Loki." The Necromancer opened its mouth as though it was about to speak, but Loki cut it off. "I'm sorry, but are you a man or a woman?"

The Necromancer blinked its large amethyst eyes at him in confusion, then sighed and let his head hang low. "I'm a man."

"Oh. Sorry if I offended you."

"No, I'm fine, I used to get that all the time back in the day." He shuffled awkwardly and bit his lower lip. Then, without warning, his head popped up and he placd his hands on Loki's chest. "Oh dear, you'll just have to forgive me for my rude behavior. Look at you, you're probably so uncomfortable in those raggedy clothes! Allow me to get you something more..." The Necromancer trailed off and looked around the room a bit before returning his attention to Loki. "Something more comfortable." He grabbed Loki's hand and tugged it softly. "Follow me." Loki shuddered, but did as he was told.

The two men walked through a series of rooms and halls, most of them serving no real purpose. It wasn't until they reached some intricately carved double doors that the Necromacer let go of Loki's hand. He put both of his pale, bony hands on the door and pushed as hard as he could. They opened to reveal a florid bedroom that looked as though it hadn't been touched in years.

The Necromancer took hold of Loki's hand again and led him to another large set of double doors on the wall at the end of a massive circular bed. He opened these doors with no trouble at all. When they swung open, the flashy lights and frilly clothes nearly blinded Loki, who had adapted to the crepuscular environment. The Necromancer walked toward one of the many shelves, all of which had many flamboyantly coloured women's outfits neatly folded on them. "Hmm... Where is it... Ah ha!" The Necromancer cried out triumphantly as he held up probably the girliest piece of clothing Loki had ever seen.

It was a baby pink kimono with soft yellow flowers dotting it. There was a large red obi to go with it, and the entire outfit was made out of fine silk. "I would give you the shoes to match, but that would just be too uncomfortable! I really wish I could find something simpler to put on you, but everything else I have has laces and ties all over it and I think that'd be far too uncomfortable for you." He squealed excitely handed the outfit to Loki, who nervously took it and observed it. _He expects me to wear this?, _Loki thought as he continued eyeing the gown.

"Do you need help putting it on? It's a foreign outfit, so I understand if it looks a little confusing," the Necromancer said as he grabbed Loki's shirt. "Just lemme get your dirty clothes off first..."

Loki harshly smacked the Necromancer's hand away, causing the effeminate man to recoil. "No, I don't need help, I just... I, uh, you wouldn't happen to have anything more masculine, would you?"

The Necromancer, who was nursing the smacked hand, shrugged softly. "I don't think so. I don't like men's clothes. They're just not as pretty." He twiddled his thumbs, then looked up at Loki, who was just standing there awkwardly. "Well, aren't you going to change?"

"Not in front of you," Loki said, sounding meaner than he intended.

"Oh, okay. I see how it is." The Necromancer patted Loki's shoulder and gave him a weak smile before leaving the room.

The jotun shifted uncomfortably. He began to slowly peel his blood-stained clothes off and let them pile around his feet. The kimono was soft, but he really didn't want to wear it. His pride and dignity were slowly being ebbed away as he put on the pink kimono. It was a lot more complicated than Loki wanted to admit.

Without any warning whatsoever, the Necromancer poked his head in the closet. "Need any help?" he asked. Loki flushed and whipped around.

"No! I just..." Loki grunted in frustration as he tried to tie the obi behind his back. It became increasingly difficult as the silk kept slipping through his fingers.

"Here, let me help," the Necromancer said as he held his hands out and walked into the closet. "You're doing it wrong, silly."

"No! No! Don't come in!" Loki tried shouting, but the Necromancer wouldn't listen. He snatched the obi out of Loki's hands and wrapped it around his waist. His hands ran across Loki's near-skeletal hips as he slowly flattened the obi and smoothed out the wrinkles. Loki cringed at the intimate contact.

_This man has clearly never heard of personal space_, Loki thought agitatedly as the Necromancer continued putting his hands in places a little too close to Loki's private areas. He sighed with relief as the Necromancer finished tying the obi around his waist.

"There perfect. How is it?" the Necromancer asked, eyes shining with anticipation.

"Uh... Not bad," Loki lied. He hated it. It was too tight around his waist, and it was far too feminine for his taste.

"Yay!" The Necromancer squealed and pulled Loki in for a bone-crushing hug. Although this man was a whole head and a half shorter than him, Loki thought his blood circulation would cut off. The Necromancer held his head back for a moment, then gasped. "Wait! You..." He tapped Loki's chest and looked up at him. "May I?"

"Suuure," Loki answered slowly, not quite sure what he was agreeing to.

The smaller man parted the upper part of Loki's kimono, exposing his alabaster chest. Loki quickly became very uncomfortable. The Necromancer placed his head on Loki's chest and sighed happily. "Okay, I don't know what you're doing, but I-" Loki began angrily, but was cut off.

"Shhh," the Necromancer shushed him softly as he held a single finger to Loki's lips, keeping his head on Loki's chest as he did so. "You have a heartbeat. It's so pretty. I haven't heard a heartbeat in over a millennia." He took Loki's hand and pressed it against his own chest. "See? I don't have a heartbeat."

Although the reason itself wasn't too bad, it still made Loki feel violated to have this man pushing up against his bare chest. "That's... Nice. Could you please stop now?"

The Necromancer's head popped up. "Oh, yeah. Sorry." He gave a nervous smile before pulling away from Loki. "You must be so tired. Here, let me set up the bed for a nap." He grabbed Loki's hand and lead him out of the closet and into the main bedroom.

"I don't need a nap, I was-"

"No, no, I insist!" The Necromancer softly pushed Loki against the bed. "I wish I had some night clothes for you, but if I did, I wouldn't have given you the kimono!" He gave Loki a cheeky smile. "I never sleep, anyway."

There were fluffy pillows, some of which were larger than Loki. They lined the upper part of the bed. Loki (with a little "help" from the Necromancer) was soon laying down on these large pillows. "Please, I really don't want to nap. I'm not tired."

"Of course you want to nap! You don't have to lie to me. It's not rude to nap, you know." The Necromancer sat right next to Loki with his legs crossed.

"Um... Okay..." Loki shut his eyes and pretended to go to sleep, hoping the Necromancer would eventually leave. However, after five minutes of holding his eyes shut, the Necromancer still didn't budge. He shifted to his side, then shifted again. Still, the Necromancer sat at his side. Finally, Loki sat up straight and faced his creepy watcher. "Why are you still in here?"

The Necromancer shrugged. "I'm waiting for you to wake up."

Loki was utterly confused by his logic. "I'm already awake!"

"No, silly! I mean after you take your nap!"

"So... You were just going to watch me sleep?" Loki asked. The Necromancer vigorously nodded. _This man knows how to make everything awkward_, he thought as he shifted uncomfortably. "Okay, that's it. I really need to talk to you about something."

"Ooh! Is it a story?" The Necromancer asked. He scooted as close to Loki as possible and placed his head on Loki's shoulder. "Tell me," he whispered, then giggled.

"Oh, I'll tell you alright." Loki pushed the Necromancer off of him and placed at least a foot of space between the two. "It's called_ personal space_. In the half-hour I've known you, I can clearly see that you have no clue what it is."

"I know what personal space is!" the Necromancer countered, then folded his arms across his chest.

"Then why are you so touchy-feely with me?! You've been stuck to me like a tick ever since I woke up!"

The Necromancer whimpered. "I just wanted you to feel comfortable..."

"Well, I feel violated by your antics. _Watching me while I sleep_?!" Loki groaned and shook his head. _I've got my very own Coulson_, Loki thought angrily.

"I didn't know! You're the first living being I've actually interacted with beyond frivolous chatter in over two, I don't know, three hundred years!" The Necromancer's lower lip poked out.

"Now you know: Don't watch people when they sleep. Or put your head on their bare chests without first telling them what you're going to do."

"Okay," the Necromancer said as his shoulders drooped a little. "You really aren't tired, are you?"

"No, I'm not."

The two sat there in an awkward silence. The Necromancer sighed softly, the looked up at Loki. He was still angry. "Are you hungry?" he asked quietly.

All of that Chinese food Loki had earlier kept his hunger at bay for quite some time, but Loki still wanted to eat whenever he got the chance. "Yes," Loki replied slowly.

"Alright then, we'll have a tea party!" The Necromancer announced happily. "Wait! I must be wearing my best clothes for a tea party. Give me a few minutes to get ready," he said as he quickly dashed into the closet and shut the door behind him.

A few minutes later, the Necromancer dramatically strutted out wearing an ornate orchid dress with many frills decorating the tips of the sleeves. He posed dramatically for Loki. "How do I look?"

"Erm... Pretty," Loki replied, not knowing how to complement the feminine man.

"Thank you!" The Necromancer said happily. "I got this dress in Alfheim. That kimono you're wearing, I got it in Midgard some few hundred years ago. Midgardians have some pretty women clothes," the Necromancer said, slowly drifting off and looking around the room as though he was remembering something from long ago. "Oh! I got this one silly looking dress, it's hilarious." He poked his head out of the closet and called out loudly, "Fenwick!"

Soon, the very same skeleton that had been chasing him earlier came running toward the closet. "Yes, Master?"

"I have something special for you," the Necromancer giggled. Fenwick backed away slowly.

"If it's another dress...," Fenwick began slowly.

The Necromancer laughed. "Oh, you're so smart. Come on, it's a beautiful dress, I promise." He forcibly grabbed the skeleton and jerked him into the closet. Within minutes, he had forced a skimpy French maid dress onto the poor skeleton. Fenwick looked absolutely miserable in the outfit. "Isn't he just so beautiful? Anyway, it's tea party time!"

Both Loki and Fenwick were agitated, but the Necromancer was happy and ignorant as ever. He grabbed both of their hands and led them out of the bedroom and into a smaller room. The room was mostly empty, but there were a few cabinets on one wall and a small table in the center of the room. There was also a door on the other side of the room. The Necromancer went to one of the cabinets and pulled out two large velvet pillows. "Here," he said, tossing one to Loki. He put his own pillow close to the table and sat down on it. Loki did the same. "Fenwick!" the Necromancer cried out, completely ignoring the fact that his skeletal servant was basically standing right next to him.

Fenwick groaned, still mortified about wearing the French maid dress. "Yes, Master?" he seethed.

"Make us some tea and a few biscuits," the Necromancer ordered. Fenwick nodded slowly and stomp out of the room.

The two men sat in the room in absolute silence. The Necromancer didn't like it-even though the raven-haired man was looking idly around the room, the Necromancer could_ feel _Loki judging him. He shifted nervously, twiddled his thumbs, and played with the tips of his hair, but to no avail. After a torturous five minutes, Fenwick still wasn't back from the kitchen. Loki wasn't as uncomfortable as he had been before, but the Necromancer felt as though he was going to die from nervousness. "Be right back," the Necromancer muttered before rocketing off his seat and was out the door in the blink of an eye.

When he entered the kitchen, he angrily slammed the door shut behind himself. "What in Nifhel is taking so long?!" the Necromancer demanded to know.

Fenwick whipped around to see his angry master standing there. "Sorry, Master, but biscuits take a little longer than five minutes to cook," he said, gesturing to the small fire on the stove. "The tea's done, though."

"Well then hurry up and serve it to us! The tension in that room is killing me!" The Necromancer stormed out of the kitchen and sat down at the table with a huff. Loki scooted away from him, but only slightly.

A few moments later, Fenwick walked out of the room with the tea tray. He gave Loki and the Necromancer their cups and poured the tea in. "I'll leave this with you two," he said, setting the tray down on the table before leaving the room.

The Necromancer held the cup up to his lips and took a sip. "Mmm, tea. Always calms me down." He inhaled the scent and took another sip.

Loki stared into the cup. The tea_ looked _normal enough. He slowly lifted the cups to his lips to take a sip. The Necromancer watched with an overabundance of anticipation. Loki cringed as the tea touched his tongue. It was probably the most disgusting thing he had ever tasted. He spewed it back out and wiped his mouth without even realizing what he had done. The Necromancer simply sat there, disappointed. "Sorry it wasn't delicious enough," he mumbled.

"No, it's fine! It's just hot," Loki said quickly, then took another sip. He almost gagged, but held it back and swallowed the tea. The Necromancer was clearly happy to hear that.

They both sat drinking their tea in a far more comfortable silence. That silence was interrupted a few minutes later when the skeleton walked in with a tray of biscuits balanced on one hand. "I've got the biscuits," Fenwick said as he began to walk over to the two men.

"Thank you," the Necromancer said and promptly snatched one of the biscuits off the plate and popped it into his mouth. "ACK!" he screeched, as though he had been hurt. "This is disgusting! How could you-"

The door was flung wide open, interrupting the Necromancer. "LO!... ki?" The Doctor stood at the door, chest heaving with exhaustion. Loki stopped what he was doing immediately. He and the Doctor held very awkward eye contact for a moment.

"Uh... I can explain," Loki said slowly as he set his tea cup down.

The Necromancer frowned and slammed his tea cup down. "Who's this?" he demanded to know.

"This is my friend, the Doctor," Loki said, quickly standing up and walking over toward him. He threw an arm across the Doctor's shoulder. "Doctor, this is the Necromancer. This man saved me... Kind of. He fixed up the wound on my head." He clapped his hands together. "Anyway, it was nice meeting you, but the Doctor and I need to get going now, so..."

"No!" the Necromancer said, then lept up. "You just got here. We haven't even finished tea yet!"

"I'd love to stay, I really would, but the Doctor and I absolutely must leave at_ this very _instant," Loki said, giving the Doctor a look that said "let's get the heck out of here".

"Erm... Yeah, we need to go save the universe and whatnot," the Doctor said awkwardly before pushing Loki out of the door. "Nice meeting you." He poked his head out of the door and whispered to Loki, "You're explaining all of this when we get back to the TARDIS."

As soon as the Doctor stepped outside the door, he was confronted with the wall that followed him. "What is this?" Loki asked as he stepped up to it. "This is impossible, nothing could've been here if you came through this way."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," the Doctor said as he walked up to the wall and placed a hand on it. "It followed me through the cave." He glanced over at Loki. "Do you think your new friend could get rid of it?"

"Of course I can! It's my spell!" the Necromancer said as he stepped out of the room and placed both his hands on the wall. Within the blink of an eye, the wall was gone and the path was lit up much brighter than it had been for the Doctor previously. "Allow me to escort you two men out," the Necromancer offered.

"No thanks, we can find our own way out," Loki said.

"No, I insist!" The three men began to walk through the cave halls. "So, tell me more about your friend," the Necromancer said while pointing at the Doctor.

"Well, we travel together," Loki said, not really sure if he wanted to tell the Necromancer much about the Doctor. "You know, you could just go ask him yourself."

"But I don't know him as well as I know you," the Necromancer said in a hushed voice. The Doctor could still hear him, but he said nothing.

"You don't know me at all! We've only been in each other's company for little under an hour."

"Well, if you feel that way," the Necromancer murmured, then silenced himself.

When the three men got to the exit of the cave, they each felt relieved. The sun was lower in the sky than it had been when the Doctor and Loki had arrived. "Well, this was very interesting," Loki said thoughtfully before peering over the edge of the mountainside. "Now, just to get down..."

The Necromancer snapped his fingers and made a rough staircase appear from the tip of the exit to the cave all the way to the ground. "I have stairs for that," he said and gave Loki a cheeky grin.

"Well, we'll be off now. Thanks for everything," Loki said, and quickly patted the Necromancer's shoulder. He was actually extremely happy he was leaving, and didn't feel in the slightest bit thankful for anything the Necromancer had done.

"Okay. Good bye, Loki," the Necromancer said sadly, patting Loki's arm. "You will return to visit me, won't you? I don't get visitors very often."

"Of course I will," Loki lied. "Good bye."

The Necromancer waved as the two descended down the stairs and began walking through the silver grass toward the TARDIS. They were about halfway across the field whenever the Necromancer finally retreated back into the comfort of his cave.

When the two reached the TARDIS, the Doctor began laughing hysterically. "Oh Loki! You look so lovely in your kimono!" He grinned mirthfully and he began cackling again.

"Shut up! He demanded I wear these silly things." Loki frowned and stomped off to his bedroom. "I'm burning this hideous thing," he murmured angrily.

"Tell me all about it when you get back," the Doctor said, still laughing a bit on the inside.

**AN: Sorry for the unecessarily long wait between the updates! I just don't put enough time into this book... Really, if I could stop playing Silent Hill and Spyro so much I might actually get these chapters done faster! xDD Seriously, though, sorry for the crap chapter. I know, nothing particularly interesting happened, but whatever, the next chapter will be much better, I promise. I also apologize for the horribly rushed ending, but I really needed to update soon. :P**


	8. Mission of Marianas

**AN: I don't get these updates out fast enough. If only Skyrim would stop RUINING MY LIFE T.T Nobody should have to wait this long for an update...**

"... And then he admitted he was going to watch me sleep," Loki said as he took a sip from his cup. He cringed at the memory. "He was very creepy."

"Sounds like it," the Doctor murmured, then chuckled. "Anyway, as much as I'd love to hear the rest of your story, I've got somewhere very special to take you." He skipped over to the control board of the TARDIS and began his work. Loki idly walked over to the Doctor and looked over his shoulder to watch what the man was doing. The Doctor was pushing buttons and pulling levers so fast Loki had a hard time keeping track of what was going on.

"How do you accomplish all of this so fast?" Loki asked as he continued watching the Doctor.

The Doctor dramatically pulled one final switch, then twisted around to face Loki. "Practice, and lots of it." He chuckled and held on to the control board as the TARDIS began emitting the usual whooshing noises and shook violently. Loki grabbed on to the control board as well, but had a slightly harder time keeping his grip.

When they touched down, the Doctor giggled mischievously. "I really think you're going to like this." He grinned and winked at Loki before walking over to the door. The Doctor poked his head out the door, then swung it open all the way and stepped outside. Loki soon followed him out.

They were in a cramped room full of small blinking lights and cords attached to metallic boxes. They could both hear the occasional beeping of some small machine somewhere in the room. All the metal in the room was very similar to chromium; silver-grey and lustrous, but less malleable. The room was very cold and left the Doctor slightly shivering. Loki walked over to one of the walls and traced his fingers along the rainbow of LEDs lining the upper part of a vented box. He turned to face the Doctor. "This is strange... And amazing. Where are we?"

The Doctor cackled. "This isn't even the cool part!" He looked around, then back to Loki. "If I'm correct, this is the Challenger Deep IV. I can't quite remember what happened to its predecessor, but for whatever reason, I don't think I want to. Hmmm." He looked around once again. "It's cold in here. Come on, let's find the captain." They walked over to a door with a valve-like handle.

"The Challenger Deep?" Loki asked. "That... That sounds familiar."

"Really? I can't imagine why," the Doctor said. "I wasn't aware you knew anything about Midgardian geography."

When the door opened, both men stepped through and began making their way through the ship. "Eh, it's probably nothing. So, where exactly is this Challenger Deep?" Loki asked.

"You'll see," the Doctor said, then chuckled again. Loki grunted in annoyance. "I wonder where he is..."

"Who?"

"The captain!" The Doctor held his right hand up to his mouth and whistled loudly. Loki shuddered at the shrill noise. "Oi, that was more pitchy than I intended. Heh, oh well."

The sound of footsteps echoed in their direction. The shadow of a man danced across the chrome walls as he came running toward them. The Doctor walked in the direction of the footsteps with Loki following closely behind. The man that approached them certainly had odd attire. His outfit was both black and orange, and his helmet was shaped in a fashion that made it look like the man had a cowlick. His helmet had an orange visor. There were three orange numbers across his chest, "904." He stood there, panting, in the presence of the Doctor and Loki. "Who are you two and how did you get here?" he asked as he pulled a small orange gun off his belt and held it out to them.

The Doctor stepped forward and held out his psychic paper. The man snatched it out of the Doctor's hands and examined it closely. "What? This is a load of bull." He handed it back to the Doctor. "You two must have been in those damned cryo cases for years. What was going through the director's head?" The Doctor shrugged. "Whatever, if you two get to feeling sick, the bathroom is in a that-ish direction. I'm sure you two can find it." The man turned around and began to walk away.

"Ah, right, thanks. Erm, I'm sorry, but the director didn't quite give me your name...?" the Doctor said.

The man slowly turned back around and lifted his visor. The look on his face was one of disbelief. "Please tell me you're joking. You... You don't even..." The man groaned and tossed his hands up in the air. "That man is trying to kill me! Gah!" He grumpily turned to face the two men. "My name's Sherman. You two better get this inspection over with quick, I don't want chumps who aren't even _dressed_ for space travel walking around in my ship too long." The man groaned and stomped away from them.

After he was gone, the Doctor turned to face Loki. "Well, Mr. Grumpy-dumpy-dip-wad _clearly_ doesn't want us here anymore." The Doctor folded his arms across his chest. "Maybe meeting the captain wasn't such a good idea."

"Grumpy-dumpy-dip-wad...? _What_?" Loki rolled his eyes. "So, is that it? Are we just going to leave?"

The Doctor looked up and laughed. "Ha! No. I don't take orders from others. Let's just avoid him, shall we? Besides, I have something amazing to show you, anyway."

"Well, where is it?"

"In... The... Direction the man just... Walked off in."

Loki squinted his eyes in confusion. "But you just said that we should avoid him."

"I know I did..." The Doctor slowly trailed off. "Here, let's see if we can find another way."

The two men turned around and began to walk away until they heard a loud "a-_hem_" from behind them. They looked over their shoulders to see a very agitated looking Sherman standing there. "Well? Where do you two think you're going?"

"We, uh, were just heading right over there with you!" the Doctor said with a nervous chuckle. Loki rolled his eyes again and began walking toward Sherman.

"Thought so. Right this way," Sherman said as he began walking again. "Oh, and if I were you, I wouldn't call me grumpy-dimpy-doo-da-whatever-it-was again, okay?" He murmured something darkly, too quietly for both the Doctor and Loki. They followed him without question.

Sherman led them both into a large, open room with glass windows all around. The three of them could peer directly into space. Loki gasped and ran up to one of the windows. "I... I can't even..." When he had seen the silver grasses of Svartalfheim, he thought he would never see anything as beautiful again. It seemed the Doctor had easily proved him wrong. The Challenger Deep IV was currently cruising through a gorgeous and massive emission nebula. The gases, dust, and stars clustered here gave the nebula a wide range of colours; from deep reds to soothing blues, this nebula had it all. The stars winked at Loki, and his heart fluttered.

The sight of all the wonderful colours awed Loki so much he hadn't noticed that the Doctor walked up right next to him. He leaned over to Loki. "That's still not the best part. Just you wait."

Loki turned to the Doctor. "No way. Nothing could beat this." He giggled and returned his attention to the nebula.

The Doctor smiled and walked back to Sherman. "This is his first time," he said to the captain.

Sherman nodded in understanding. "The first time is always the best. I remember my first time in the Pacific Nebula. I wasn't in this particular area, of course."

"What _are_ you doing in this particular area?" the Doctor asked. He stood next to Sherman and held his hands behind his back, waiting for the same thing Sherman was.

"Wow. The director really didn't tell you, did he?" Sherman shook his head. "I'm the first man to visit the Marianas Arc of the Pacific Nebula."

The Doctor gasped in realization. "You're_ the _Sherman Cumberdale! I can't believe I didn't realize that! Ah ha!" He grabbed Sherman's hand and vigourously shook it. "I don't think I've told you already, but I'm the Doctor, and I'm very pleased to meet you."

Sherman looked surprised, then simply smiled. "Ah. So he _did_ tell you. Hmph." He looked over at Loki. "Heh, goob." Without warning, a loud beeping noise sounded from a large and complex control board to the front of the ship. Sherman ran toward it and sat himself firmly in the seat. "Gentlemen, we are entering the_ zone_." He chuckled as he took his helmet off and replaced it with a bulky headset. "I've been waiting for this for three years. It better be worth it." He flipped a small switch and watched as the glass window in front of him change into a screen portraying a 5k kilometer diameter around the ship in 3D. Sherman used his hands on a small pad in front of him to flip and twist the diagram to see where he needed to steer the ship. "Sir, could you go get my octobot? He's probably in the back somewhere." The Doctor nodded and left. Loki didn't seem to care about the diagram.

With a few more flicks of the levers on his control board, Sherman sent his space ship flying forward. Loki finally stopped looking out the window and noticed the strange-looking diagram on Sherman's window. He walked over to Sherman and watched him work. "Where are we going?"

"You see those dots?" Sherman asked as he pointed toward the top of the diagram. A mass of red and yellow dots gathered there, more coming in every second. "We're heading toward those. You're in for a big surprise."

"What? We're going to see a bunch of dots?" Loki asked flatly. He saw a few yellow dots dart toward them.

"Not just any dots," Sherman chuckled. He moved the diagram to the side of the screen and revealed the space in front of them. "Those dots."

Loki's eyes widened. "No... No! This is impossible!" He cackled and pressed his face up against the glass. "This is wonderfully impossible! I... How?! What are these things?"

"They're called dolphins," Sherman said as one of them "swam" close to the window. Loki looked up, eyes sparkling with childish glee as the dolphin's void-black eyes gazed back at him. It was partially transparent, but mostly fleshy. There were ribbon-like fins that fluttered behind it like paper. Small bone plates were growing on it's face, with smaller bone nubs lining the area just behind it's eyes. Behind this dolphin, more ventured close to the space ship.

"Find the right spots, and there's all kinds of marine life in space. We always suspected there was a massive nest of them here in the Marianas, but we never knew for sure until now. Once, quite some time ago, we sent an unmanned probe here. We lost signal with it before it ever even made it, though." Sherman sighed.

Loki turned to face him. "So you're the first man here?"

"Yes. Well, me and my only other two crew members. I have my octobot, Cumberdale (obviously named after me), and Ed." Sherman sat up quickly and pointed outside. "More of 'em are coming." He pressed a small button on his control board and removed the diagram from the screen completely, giving them the full view of the oncoming hoard of other-worldly marine animals. Loki stopped breathing. The sight of so many animals all at once was almost overwhelming.

Loki ran up to the window again. Now he knew what the Doctor meant by "that wasn't the best part." The sudden blast of life thriving all around him made him feel ecstatic. One of the many animals, something that resembled a seal, took interest in Loki and flew toward the window. This one had many antennae lining its brow. It, like the dolphin, was fleshy in colour, but was far more transparent. When Loki looked at the creature's underside, he saw that it was completely transparent, and all of it's organs were visible. Loki found it hard to look at it's underside, for every time he moved, the seal would move with him. When he rocked from side to side, the seal would bob it's head from side to side, mimicking Loki. He chuckled at the seal's actions and began moving about in a bunch of crazy directions.

The Doctor came strolling back in with a strange robot in tow. They both walked up to Sherman, who was standing in front of the window with his hands behind his back. "Brought it," the Doctor said, causing Sherman to turn his head. Loki was far too enthralled with his seal to care. Sherman walked over to it and patted the bulbous glass case that was seated on a robotic body.

"You! Goob! Get over here and meet Cumberdale," Sherman cried out to Loki, who abruptly turned around and frowned at being called "goob." He reluctantly left his little seal and walked to see the octobot. "Meet Cumberdale, my loyal pet and assisstant."

Loki certainly wasn't expected Cumberdale to be what he was. It was an octopus in a round glass case on top of a robot body. The glass wasn't filled with water, despite having an aquatic animal occupying it. Cumberdale's tentacles drooped out of small holes at the botton of the glass case. He held one out toward Loki, who awkwardly stared at it.

"He wants to shake your hand," Sherman explained. "He can't talk, so he just uses his tentacles to do stuff for him.

"Why would he want to do that?" Loki asked, not quite understanding the point of shaking hands.

The Doctor face-palmed. "It's a way to greet someone."

"You humans have strange customs," Loki murmured as he held out his right hand and softly shook the slimy tentacle. He peered more closely at the glass case and noticed a part of the octopus was inside the robot body. "What does the rest of him look like?" Loki asked.

Sherman's face scrunched up. "Erm, you don't want to know." He shifted uncomfortably, then patted Cumberdale's glass dome again. "Go take over the control. Get Ed in here to help you out." Cumberdale wordlessly walked over to the control board and got to work.

Loki ran back toward the window to keep watching the different animals, all curiously floating by the Challenger Deep. He saw a colossal jellyfish that looked paper-thin and floated by idly. Mile long fleshy ribbons trailed off the massive jellyfish, and it looked like small LED lights were inside of them, constantly blinking. After it floated by, Loki saw a shark fly dangerously close to the window. It's dorsal fin resembled a funnel, and it's body was elongated and ended in a snake-like tail. It had four pairs of fins running down it's body, and it moved as an aquatic mammal would, bobbing up and down to propel itself forward.

The Doctor stood next to Loki. "Isn't it wonderful?"

"Wonderful doesn't do it justice," Loki said as he placed his hands on the window. "Doctor, this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"I really think you're going to like it with me," the Doctor said. "This isn't even the beginning. There's so much more in the universe."

"I can't even imagine. Nothing could ever be more perfect than this," Loki said as he fondly kept his eyes on a nearby lobster.

"You're gonna get used to saying that," the Doctor said. He closely examined the swarm of animals flying by, and noticed that the one animal he wanted more than any other wasn't there. "Aww."

"What?"

"I was hoping we'd see some star whales. I know they're not extinct yet." He pressed his face to the window, much like Loki, and continued his search. "I love those things."

Loki was also looking around, not sure what he should be looking for, but looking nonetheless. Finally, his eyes fell onto a creature far in the distance coming toward them. At first, it looked small from afar, but the closer it got, the more monumental it seemed. His eyes widened and he took a few steps back as he realized just how large it was. "D-D-Doctor...," Loki mumbled as he tugged the Doctor's sleeve and pointed at it.

The Doctor stopped searching and turned to see what Loki had been gazing at. The Doctor saw it and gasped. "That's it! Oh, look at the big beauty! Ha ha!" The Doctor triumphantly threw his hands up in the air and clapped Loki's back. "Sherman! Get over here, it's a star whale!"

Sherman ran over toward them with a look of pure glee. "No way! No one has ever seen one in person before!" He laughed and ran up to the glass. The three of them watched and waited as the massive creature slowly made it's way toward the ship. "Oh man, it looks even bigger than in the pictures. Oooh man."

"Those are some weird hooks," Loki mentioned suddenly, catching the other two men off guard.

"Hooks?" Sherman asked.

"Yeah. That whale has hooks hanging off of it's belly." Loki, oblivious to the other men's confusion, continued watching it approached.

"Uh... Loki... Star whales don't have hooks," the Doctor said nervously.

Loki, who could see further than both of them, was beginning to get confused as well. "Then why does that one have hooks?"

Sherman and the Doctor looked at eachother. "Hooks? I've never heard of a space animal with those," Sherman said.

The Doctor's hearts hammered in his chest. "For a good reason," he mumbled before looking back out of the window. The closer the creature got, the more the other space animals dispersed. The Doctor suddenly panicked. "SHERMAN! GET THIS SHIP OUT OF HERE!"

Loki pulled himself away from the window quickly. "Doctor? What's wrong?"

"That's not a space whale," the Doctor said as he ran over to the control board.

Sherman was there already, ordering Cumberdale and Ed. "I need you two to steer us out of here as fast as you can; put us into jump-mode as soon as we're out of this cluster."

"Wait, so that's not a space whale?" Ed asked as he began fiddling with the controls.

"NO! Whatever it is, it must be a lot more dangerous!"

"... Shit," Ed mumbled. He pointed at the diagram. "We've had one coming up below us for-" That was all he had time to say before the entire ship violently shook, sending all the men crashing into the floor of the ship. "Our shield isn't strong enough to stop it!" Ed yelled.

Alarms began blaring loudly. All areas that led to the back of the ship were automatically closed off by the ship's security systems. "Ship auto-jumping in t-minus two minutes..."

"No! Cancel it! We can't risk jumping in such a dense cluster!" Sherman began freaking out. "We could kill anything within fifty-hundred kliks of this area! CANCEL IT!" The ship gave another violent shudder as the malevolent creature continued attacking the rear.

Ed frantically worked with the controls. "I can't! The security system has overridden my controls!"

"Son of a-" The ship shook again. All the lights in the ship shut off, and the controls stopped working completely. The ship shuddered even more, then without warning, jumped through space and out of the nebula. The ride was frantic and shaky. Although the chamber of the ship they were in was supposed to prevent the g-force of a jump from affecting the passengers, they were still pushed up against the walls of the ship from sheer force.

At the end of the jump, Sherman stood up and let out a string of long and creative curses. "God! The director is going to kill me! I damaged a trillion dollar ship and probably killed everything in the Marianas Arc!" He grabbed the sides of his head and began stomping around and cursing in rage. "I messed EVERYTHING UP! I'll be lucky if I get to see my kids again! Shit!"'

The Doctor and Loki stood awkwardly to the side. Ed sat solemnly at the seat, realizing everyone on the ship could easily lose their jobs, or worse, their lives. "The controls won't come back on. I can't get the ship moving anymore. I have no idea what caused it to auto-jump so early." He sighed. "We'll have to get some suits on and fix what we can in the back."

"If it gets us home," Sherman muttered. The entire crew followed him out of the room and into a hall. The Doctor saw that they were walking toward the area where he had parked the TARDIS. Loki noticed this too.

Loki walked over toward the Doctor. "Do you think we could just sneak away on the TARDIS?" he whispered quietly into the Gallifreyan's ear.

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm staying to help."

Sherman, hearing the Doctor's response, turned around. "Of course you're staying to help. You two weren't planning on ditching us, were you?"

"No," the Doctor answered. The crew reached the door. Cumberdale reached forward to open it, but couldn't do it. Ed stepped forward and tried to do it as well.

"Deadlocked. They must have damaged a massive part of the ship if it's deadlocked up this far," Ed said as he took his hand off the door. "The only way to get through is to pass through one of the emergency doors, but to do that, we need suits. Unfortunately, those suits are on the other side of these doors. The only one who can pass through that door without a suit is Cumberdale, but he can't do the job alone." Ed kicked the door in agitation. "We're stuck here. Unless a wandering ship somehow manages to find us, we're not going anywhere."

Sherman shuddered, then fell to his knees. "No. There has to be a way." He held himself. "I'm not dying here. Not today." He abruptly stood back up. "We have to try to send in Cumberdale. He's our only option."

Ed folded his arms across his chest. "I don't know if you've forgotten, but Cumberdale is an _octopus_. He isn't mentally capable of pulling off a task as big as fixing the ship."

"I don't care. We have to try. I'm not giving up this early. Ed, get Cumberdale his tentacle sleeves." Sherman left the area with Ed and Cumberdale following closely behind.

The Doctor and Loki followed far behind them. "Why can't they enter the rear end of the ship?" Loki asked as they were walking.

"Because it was heavily damaged. Chances are, there's an opening into space somewhere in it, and that's never a good thing."

"Why not?"

"Space is a vacuum. There's no air, and the temperature is absolute zero. Anyone crazy enough to step into space would immediately have all of the air sucked out of them, would freeze to death, and have all of their bodily fluids boil. It's a horrible, grotesque way to go."

Loki stopped walking for a moment, then caught up to the Doctor. "I can survive absolute zero temperatures."

The Doctor immediately turned around. "_No_. Don't even think about it, mister. I realize the cold wouldn't get you, but the lack of air would. If you didn't get sucked out the minute you walked out there, you would boil under the heat of your own fluids turning into a vapor."

"But... I've survived out in space before... I think."

"Oh really? When was that?" The Doctor said sarcastically, folding his arms across his chest.

"A little over a year ago. I fell off the Bifrost... And here I am, well and alive."

The Doctor's brow furrowed in suspicion. He didn't believe Loki's story for a second. "What happened when you fell off?"

"I fell into a vortex."

"A vortex? Really?" The Doctor nodded in false consideration. "Erm, exactly where did that vortex come from?"

"The Bifrost... A part of it fell off. It collapsed in on itself and created a vortex. I fell into it."

The Doctor nodded, seriously this time. "Well, that explains why you survived the fall. The Bifrost is kind of like my TARDIS; it has a protective atmospheric shell around it. Chances are, you fell while the remainder of the shell was being sucked into the vortex."

Loki groaned. "Doctor, please just give me a chance. I'm not going to just sit around here while we wait and hope for help that's never going to come!"

"And I'm telling you _NO_! I'm not letting you put your life in danger for anyone on the ship!"

"Why not?! If I did die, can't you just use your TARDIS to come back in time and stop me?!" Loki asked harshly. The Doctor retreated into a shy cower. "Can't you?" Loki asked again, softer this time.

The Doctor shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. Look, I'll just have them direct Cumberdale toward the TARDIS. If he can fly a spaceship, he can certainly fly a TARDIS, right? I'll have him bring it in here and we'll take these three home before running off elsewhere, okay?" Loki balled his fists by his sides and stormed off. The Doctor shook his head and sighed.

When they entered the main room, they saw Ed putting sleek black sleeves on Cumberdale's tentacles. The Doctor walked over to Ed. "I have an idea. My space ship is big enough to get us out of here. If we could hook up a microphone and connect him and I..."

"Can't," Ed interrupted. "He's programmed to know how to fly this space ship and this one only. He can't properly respond to most other commands." Ed sighed. "This poor little octopus is so stupid. We're sending him to his death."

Sherman was sitting on the floor with his knees pulled up to his chest and his back against the wall. "He's our only hope. We can't die here." His lower jaw shook with fear.

Loki stood close to the door, distanced from everyone else._ I came so far... I thought I could really get the TARDIS and free myself_. Loki's hands lightly shook. His throat felt dry. He clenched his fists again._ I didn't come here to die_, Loki thought as he silently stole away into the darkness of the halls. He had no idea what he was looking for, but he knew he needed to find a way into the other side of the ship.

After doing quite a bit of wandering, Loki found a room that looked like it should've contained suits. There were diagrams of the anatomy of the suits on the walls, and mostly empty pods with hangers. He walked up to one of the diagrams of the suits and closely examined it. After memorizing the designs, he walked over to one of the pods. This pod, like very few others in the room, still had one part of the suit in it; a helmet and an oxygen tank attached to it. Loki decided this would be all he needed; human bodies may not be adapted to walking around in deep space vacuum, but after his incident with the Bifrost, Loki was confident in his abilities to survive. He removed the helmet and oxygen tank from the pod and left.

Meanwhile, Ed, Sherman, the Doctor, and Cumberdale were all gathered around an emergency door. Cumberdale, now wearing his tentacle sleeves, was ready to cross over to the dangerous half of the ship. "Good luck, Cumberdale. It was nice knowing you," Sherman said as he patted the robotic shoulder. The octopus made a floppy nodding motion, then walked into the cramped white room that the emergency door led to. The door slammed shut behind him.

The octobot stood in the room, awkwardly awaiting the security system to open the door for him. The female voice that was supposed to be the security system began glitching. The loud noises frightened Cumberdale, but he refrained from freaking out too much. A small red laser scanned his body, then opened the door into the vacuum. He stepped through with no problem. Protected by his outfit, the octopus began to wander around the back of the space ship, unsure of exactly what it was he was supposed to be doing.

Sherman held a microphone up to his mouth. "Cumberdale, this is Sherman, can you copy?" The only thing he got back was static. Sherman slowly lowered the microphone. "It doesn't work," he mumbled and handed the microphone to Ed.

"I'll keep trying to get in contact with him. I'll alert you if I do," Ed said, trying his best to comfort his captain. Sherman was pacing back and forth, deeply troubled by this sudden turn of events. Regardless of whether they got out of there alive or not, their lives were ruined. Sherman walked over to the control board of the ship, which was completely dark and inactive. The Doctor and Ed followed him over there, where the three men idly discussed escape possibilities, all of them knowing they were stuck.

Loki took this opportunity to sneak into the cramped emergency room. He quickly placed the helmet on his head and waited for the door to open. The glitchy security system narrator said something completely inaudible, then scanned him with the red laser. It switched his helmet on for him, which is something he hadn't known how to do. A red light in the corner of the light blinked a few times, then left him standing and waiting in silence. The door didn't open. Loki had suspected this, and pulled the image of the suit from his memory. If his illusion magic worked properly, he could make it look like he was wearing the outfit without actually having it on. It was his only chance.

The Jotun murmured a few words under his breath, then waited. His body promptly responded to his soft command, and seidr soon surrounded him. Within the minute, he appeared to have a full suit. He reached upward and tapped the small machine. The glitchy voice announced something again, then scanned him again. This time, he was allowed through the door. Loki's heart began pounding in his chest. He was suddenly regretting his idea. He had no idea if he could actually survive or not. His arms and legs shook violently from fear. It was too late to retreat. He was about to turn around and demand someone on the other side of the door open it back up, but the door to the backside of the ship opened up.

Loki shook even harder, his fear pouring out uncontrollably. He was afraid that if he moved, he would die somehow. When he felt something softly tap his shoulder, he jumped and gave a frightened cry. He opened his eye to see Cumberdale standing there, looking at him with grave confusion. Loki reached up and tenderly touched the octobot's glass dome. _I'm alive_, Loki realized and cackled gleefully. He tossed his hands up in the air. "I'M ALIVE!" He suddenly covered his mouth and whipped around. He didn't want the Doctor to know he was here. Loki giggled mischievously and turned to face Cumberdale. "C'mon. You and me are getting out of here."

Cumberdale began flailing his tentacles wildly as Loki stepped away. "What are you doing? Come- AAAHHHH!" He screamed and flailed about as he was lifted off of his feet. There he floated, hovering in midair. "What?! WHY AM I FLOATING?! HELP!" Cumberdale calmly grabbed him with three of his tentacles and brought him back down to the floor.

Loki sat up and brushed his pants. "What in the Nine realms just happened to me?" he asked as he looked around. Cumberdale pointed at a small box on the wall. Loki leaned in close enough to read it. It was a gravity switch. Although it was turned on, it didn't seem to work in some areas. "So... If I step over here..." Loki eased over to the same spot in the room he began floating in and once again found himself suspended in the air. Instead of freaking out, he giggled. "No gravity... Eh heh heh... Well, come on!" Loki waved Cumberdale over to him. The octobot walked over without question and held onto the wall to keep himself firmly planted on the ground. "How bland," Loki mumbled before pulling himself along the wall to move forward.

The strange duo wandered around the back of the ship for a bit, neither knowing where to go or what to do. After a few moments of watching Loki float around above him, Cumberdale gave in and allowed himself to float up into the air. Loki gave him a thumbs up and continued moving about. Eventually, they both found the TARDIS, still parked and untouched by the attack. Loki tried to open it, but found out woefully that he had left his key in the TARDIS._ Damn_, Loki thought._ I guess I'll have to find some bloody way to fix this ship._

He wasn't very pleased about being reduced to a Midgardian job, but he wasn't about to die in this ship. "Do you know where the basic controls are?" Loki asked Cumberdale. At first the octobot shrugged, then nodded. "Take me there."

A few mintues after wordlessly following the octobot, the duo found themselves in a room very similar to the one the TARDIS had been parked in. The only difference was that this one had far more switches and little blinking LEDs. Loki saw the switches and had no idea which ones to flip. "Hmm... I'll try this one..." Loki flipped tiny blue one at first. There was no noticeable change. "Well, that was completely unhelpful." He grunted and began flipping switches at random. Nothing about the area around them changed. "These switches aren't doing us any good!" Loki yelled agitatedly. He moved over to a different area in the room and found lots of buttons. He began poking them at an extreme pace, each one flashing as his finger pushed it. Finally, after a few minutes of eventless button-poking, Loki violently punched the board of buttons. The lights flicked on in the room. Loki looked up and laughed. "I did it! HA!"

Meanwhile, back in the main room, the lights switched back on. The three men jumped at the sudden change. "That... That crazy little octopus is doing it! I can't believe it!" Sherman laughed, relieved. "Boys, we'll be out of here in no time." Ed wasn't near as hopeful as his captain, but he didn't say anything to put Sherman down. The Doctor had to agree with Ed in his silent debate. The lights turning on was probably just an accident.

Loki floated around, looking for more things in the room to mess with. "I... I think I've done all I can in here. Everything else seems to have no connection. Are there any more rooms you can think of that have controls?" Loki asked. Cumberdale nodded.

The two began floating around once more in search of some controls to get the ship working again. While walking through one hall, they saw a large hole in the side of the ship. Loki gasped and cautiously floated closer to it. Cumberdale wrapped three tentacles around a nearby pole and wrapped another three around Loki's leg to keep him from floating out of the space ship. The hole in the ship gave a perfect view of the stars and gas clouds around them. "It's so beautiful, don't you agree?" Cumberdale nodded.

After remaining at the hole for a few minutes, they carried on with their search and soon found themselves in another control room. Loki thanked Cumberdale for his guidance and set himself to flipping switches and punching buttons as he did in the other room. He managed to turn the gravity back on, to his dismay, and get the protective shield up and running around the ship again. The security system announced something in a very gravelly and glitchy manner, then shut off again. Loki didn't understand why, nor did he particularly mind. He and Cumberdale had to continue their mission to save the Challenger Deep IV.

What they did not realize was that by setting up the protective shield they had allowed the doors to the rear end of the ship to become accessible again. Although oxygen soon filled the atmosphere around the two, they didn't notice it due to their helmets. The three men in the main room certainly noticed it, and got to the back part of the ship as soon as they could. "C'mon, we'll find Cumberdale and fix up the rest of the ship!" Sherman announced triumphantly. "Oh, I didn't think that crazy little octopus could do it, but he could!"

The three men began dashing about in the rear end of the ship, crying out for Cumberdale. While running about, they came across the very same hole in the ship that Loki and Cumberdale had seen earlier. However, because of the protective shield and working gravity, they did not have to worry about floating off. They only stayed there for a few moments before taking off to find the octobot.

Loki and Cumberdale both came running toward the cries of the three men, and when they met eachother in the hall, the Doctor's jaw dropped. Loki stood their with a smug smirk on his face as he folded his arms across his chest. "Guess who can survive the deep space vacuum?" Loki said triumphantly. Cumberdale squelched in delight as he ran toward Sherman and Ed. "Oh, you also have me to thank for fixing your ship for you. And let's not forget Cumberdale, of course, the one who showed me the control rooms in the first place."

The Doctor ran up to Loki with wide arms and heartily embraced him. "You little twit! Don't just run off to places I tell you not to go!" The Doctor hastily jerked Loki's helmet off his head and popped him across the face. Loki looked back at him, insulted, snarled.

"How dare you strike a-"

"Well, gentlemen, I'm afraid my companion and I simply must be going, so if you'll excuse us..."

"Wait," Sherman said, standing up. "You two haven't told me your real names."

Loki took a small step forward. "Forgive me. My name is Loki."

"Huh. Funny name. And you?" Sherman asked, looking toward the Doctor.

"Just 'the Doctor," he replied.

Sherman shrugged. "Ah, well. Go on then, you two." Sherman shuddered. "The director is going to kill me," he mumbled.

"I don't think he will," the Doctor said with a charming smile and a wink. "It was a great honor getting to serve you, Captain Sherman. I'm sure you'll do great things someday," the Doctor said, smiling knowingly.

"And it was an honor having you two help me in my time of crisis. There are no words for how grateful I am to have been in your company." Sherman saluted the Doctor, who waved it off.

"Oh, please don't do that."

Sherman abruptly put down his hand. "Sorry," he mumbled. He straightened his posture. "So, are you two going straight back to base?" The Doctor nodded. "Ah. I think I will too. I'll be sure to inform the director of your heroic duties."

"There's no need for that," the Doctor said. "All we wanted was to help."

"And I'm happy for it. You two better travel safe," Sherman said, waving them off with a smile. The Doctor and Loki returned the affectionate gesture and soon made their way out of the room. It wasn't until they left that Sherman realized something very odd.

"Say, how did his companion survive out here without a suit?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Doctor and Loki were once again in the comfortingly familiar TARDIS. However, despite the crisis being over, Loki still felt a sense of unease._ The Challenger Deep_. Where did he know that from?

"We just saved a space ship, and you're going to spend your time pouting?" the Doctor said with an amused grin.

"The Challenger Deep." Loki kept pondering over the name. "I know I know it. But... Why?"

"Do you even know what the Challenger Deep is?" the Doctor asked, walking over toward Loki.

Loki simply shook his head. "I haven't the faintest clue."

"It's a part of an oceanic trench." Loki raised an eyebrow, signaling for the Doctor to continue. "It's the deepest part of any ocean trench on Earth, or Midgard. It's a segment of the Marianas trench, in the Pacific ocean." The Doctor strolled around the room. "That's why the nebula is called the 'Pacific Nebula.' It has a lot of space-born creatures that closely resemble marine wildlife. The Marianas Arc was the only part of the nebula no one had been to. What better ship could you send into an Arc like that than the Challenger Deep?" The Doctor grinned.

"But it doesn't make sense. Why does that name sound familiar?" Loki was getting more and more confused.

"Well... Do you want me to take you to the Challenger Deep? I mean, the real one in the ocean?" The Doctor offered. It was the least he could do.

Loki nodded. "Yes. Thank you. I don't know why I know it, but I want... No, I_ need _to find out why it is so familiar."

The Doctor happily strutted toward the control board of the TARDIS. "Then I'll take you. I know this one perfect ship down there that would give us a marvelous view." The Doctor grinned and worked his magic with the knobs and levers of the control board. "Off we go!" the Doctor cackled gleefully and pushed his glasses up on his face. He and Loki held onto the control board for their lives in order to avoid being thrown around. Loki grinned too, and found himself to be genuinely excited to see what mysteries awaited him in the real Challenger Deep.

**AN: You guys have no idea how sorry I am D''': I seriously need to put more effort into getting this fic done.**


	9. Safe Haven

The _M. H. Rochester_ slowly descended to the ocean floor, a resonating beep occasionally heard echoing throughout the ship. At this depth, the water was already pitch-black and extremely murky. There would only be a few hundred feet to go before it hovered right above the ocean floor.

The captain, Mr. Rochester himself, stood in the center of the control room with his hands on his hips. He didn't know a thing about how build submarines, but he knew how to keep a crew in line, and that was exactly what he was there to do. Regardless of whether it was necessary or not, the bossy man kept barking out orders at random to assert his dominance over everyone in the submarine. The crew members rolled their eyes, but kept at their jobs.

Mr. Rochester walked up to the control board and placed his hands on it. He closely observed the radar to see how much further they were from the sea floor. _Everything is going to smoothly! We'll be there in no time_, Mr. Rochester thought happily. He was the one who had paid for the expedition and the building of the submarine, and had been waiting years to finally put it to the test.

Without warning, a loud whooshing sound emitted from the back of the submarine. "You two!" Mr. Rochester yelled, pointing at the two nearest men. "Go see what the problem is!" His heart began beating fast. He wasn't going to let something mess up, not after he put so much time and money into this project. _This can't be good..._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Loki coughed into his fist. "Urgh, I don't feel so good..."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," the Doctor almost immediately replied. "I knew going into the deep space vaccuum was a bad idea, but nooo, you didn't listen." He turned around and saw Loki holding his stomach. "Well... I hope they have a restroom."

"They? I thought you were taking me to the Challenger Deep."

"I am. We're on one of the submarines. I think this is... 2046? If I'm correct, then we are on the_ M. H. Rochester_."

"Erm..."

The Doctor didn't wait for Loki's reply and simply ran to the door. When he poked his head out, he saw two confused crew men staring at the TARDIS with disbelief in their eyes. "Ha! I was right! Sorry to arrive without warning, gentlemen, but my friend and I were interested in seeing what you lot are up to." The Doctor gave them his trademark cheeky grin before retreating into the TARDIS. "C'mon, we're here!" he grabbed Loki's hand and pulled him out of the TARDIS.

The inside of the_ M. H. Rochester _was different than that of the Challenger Deep. It wasn't near as shiny or clean-looking, but it didn't look particularly messy, either. Loki took a deep breath and coughed._ I hope this helps me find out why that name was so familiar_, Loki thought as he stood idly to the side while the Doctor talked to the two men.

"The captain's not going to believe this," one of the crew members muttered, eliciting a chuckle from the Doctor. Loki was jerked out of his deep thinking just in time to hear it.

"Most people don't. Now come on, introduce us to your captain," the Doctor said. The two crew members cast nervous glances towards each other, then stiffly began to walk out of the room. One crew member awkwardly gestured for the Doctor and Loki to follow. It wasn't long until the four men had reached the control room.

"Sir... We, uh, we found the source of the noise," one of the crew members said nervously before he stepped to the side and gestured towards the Doctor and Loki. Mr. Rochester opened his mouth as though he was about to speak, then shut it again. He repeated this for a few moments, giving him the appearance of a fish.

"I... Uh... What?"

"Hello sir, I'm the Doctor," the Doctor said, holding out his hand. He put on his biggest grin, making Loki roll his eyes.

"Erm... How are you... What did..." The Doctor held out his psychic paper, hoping the small thing would answer any questions. If not, well, he was out of luck. "Oh my," was all the captain said. He nervously cleared his throat and handed the psychic paper back to the Doctor. "That's... Well, that's very creative." He took a few steps away from the Doctor.

"Right, sooo... How much longer until we hit the bottom?" the Doctor asked.

"A few minutes or so," the captain replied. Mr. Rochester shifted awkwardly, then shook his head. "I... I just can't..." The Doctor chuckled again, and wondered what he had read on the psychic paper.

The submarine shook softly, then stopped completely. "Uh, sir, we're here," one of the crew members said. "But there's something funny on the radar..."

The Doctor walked over toward Loki. "Anything clicking yet?"

Loki shook his head. "Erm... No."

The two men stood by in the room while the crew was dashing to and fro working on the various mechanics of the submarine. Loki was still trying to remember why the Challenger Deep sounded so familiar, but despite his efforts, he simply couldn't remember. "This is going to kill me," he murmured in frustration.

"What is?" the Doctor asked.

"Trying to remember-" Loki was cut off by the submarine's sudden violent juddering. The loud screeching of metal being crushed resonated throughout the ship, making everyone cover their ears. "Damn! I remember!"

"That's nice, now we gotta go!" the Doctor yelled over the chaos. The ship shook again, knocking the crew members on their feet.

"No! We can't!" Loki yelled. "Urgh..." Loki tried to push himself up, but was interrupted by the ship shaking again. He grabbed onto the side of the submarine and hauled himself upwards. "Grab on!" he shouted as he held out a hand. The Doctor grabbed it and pulled himself up.

"What is going on?!"

"Follow me!" Loki, holding on tightly to the subarine walls, began making his way toward the source of the screeching noise. He tried to grab on to the Doctor's hand, but the Doctor immediately jerked away.

"How do you know what's happening?!"

Loki rolled his eyes and simply kept going. _If he's not going to cooperate, then so be it,_ he thought angrily. _Odin really could've picked a better place to put him_. Loki paused to cough into one of his hands. He almost lost balance, but recovered quickly enough to grab the wall of the submarine again.

The Doctor, meanwhile, headed back to the control room to make sure everyone was okay. When he was arrived, he was upset to see everybody had been thrown around the room. Alarms began blaring, indicating the submarine was leaking._ What is that insane little bastard doing?, _the Doctor thought as he tried (and failed) to help the crew members back on their feet.

Without warning, the submarine stopped shaking. The crew members began to slowly stand up. "What... What was that?" one of them asked. The Doctor shook his head and began running toward the back, where he presumed Loki was.

"Loki! Where are-"

"-And I cannot believe you would just attack an innocent ship!" The Doctor heard Loki scolding someone.

"It's a defense mechanism! I can't help it!" Whatever Loki was talking to had a breathy, scratchy voice.

"You almost_ killed _me and my friend!"

"What was I supposed to do? Stick my head in and say 'Hey, I'm the giant snake that's been living in your ocean for a thousand years, is my dad on board'?!"

The Doctor cautiously approached and saw Loki looking down at something he was holding. From his position, it was hard to tell, but the Doctor was pretty sure whatever this thing was was what Loki was talking to.

"Well... Erm..." Loki tried to think of something to say.

"See?!"

"Look, Jormungand, I'm-"

"Who's there?" The Doctor saw a small snake stick its head up and look directly at him. Loki whipped around and saw the Doctor standing there.

"Oh, that's my friend, the Doctor. Doctor, this is Jormungand, my..." Loki slowly trailed off. "Friend."

"Really?!" the little snake hissed in agitation and coiled itself up.

The Doctor was confused. He walked up to Loki. "Wow. Um... How do you two know eachother?"

"WEEeell... That's kind of a long story, heh heh, isn't it,_ friend_?" Loki softly nudged the little snake in his hands, who simply huffed and buried its head within its coils.

"So, what exactly did this little snake have to do with the submarine being crushed?"

"Oh, that! Heh heh, right. You see, Jormungand is usually much bigger than this. I just made him little so it would be easier to talk to him. Anyway, the Challenger Deep is his home, which is why it sounded so familiar to me!" Loki paused and furrowed his brow. "He's been here a long time, though, long before this place was called the 'Challenger Deep'... Eh, Odin probably just told me at some point."

"So Odin knew about him?"

Loki's eyes widened. "Yes..."

"Does anyone else?"

"No..."

"And how did you two meet again?" The Doctor folded his arms across his chest and tapped his foot.

"I already said, it's a long story..."

"Oh, I've got plenty of time."

"Well," Jormungand began, lifting his head up and looking at the Doctor, "It started with the time Thor's friends made fun of him for being a virgin-"

"NO IT DIDN'T HEH HEH HEH you silly little snake," Loki burst out suddenly as he nearly crushed the little snake's head with his fist.

The Doctor took a step back. "Wait, you two didn't _do it_, did you?" His face scrunched up in confusion and disgust.

Loki's head immediately shot up. "NO! Oh, Norns, no!" Loki nervously chuckled. "I would_ never _copulate with animals." Loki released Jormungand's head to cough into his balled fist.

"Liar," Jormungand muttered. Loki's hands began shaking.

"WHAT?!" The Doctor had traveled with some strange companions, but this was definitely weirder than anything he had ever encountered with them.

"NO! Augh! Jormungand, shut up!" Loki was shaking with rage, but Jormungand was shaking with laughter.

Loki gave up and dropped Jormungand. "Look, Jormungand is my son."

The Doctor couldn't comprehend everything that had just been said. "So, wait, that means... I'm so confused right now."

"Well, one day, I got tired of Thor's friends always making fun of me for being, well, 'lonely', so I decided to un-'lonely' myself and..." He held out his hands toward Jormungand.

"But... How? You're Jotun, and he's a snake! What happened?"

"I slept with another frost jotun, Angrboda. What I _didn't _know was that when a non-magic jotun bears the offspring of a magic one, they produce strange results. I didn't know I was even a jotun back then, but now that I do, I know how my children came out to be so strange."

"_Children_? There's more?"

Loki's frame went rigid. "Yes."

The Doctor squeezed the bridge of his nose. "You need to keep it in your pants..."

"Hey! There's only two more!"

"That Angrboda mothered," Jormungand cut in. "Only Norns know how many _other_ children you have running around out there."

"SSSHHHH," Loki spat out loudly, but it was too late.

"Oh dear..." The Doctor muttered.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but I'm just not used to trusting anyone with this secret. I was never allowed to tell anyone about my children. I... I wasn't even allowed to raise them, to watch them grow up." Loki leaned over and picked up the little snake off the floor. "I know this might sound odd, but do you think they could stay on the TARDIS with us? They must be absolutely miserable where they are."

"Loki, I don't think that would be such a good idea..."

"Then can we take them to somewhere they'll be happier?" Loki held the small snake to his chest and was practically pleading now. "I know a place, we can just stop by there and drop them all off. Please?"

The Doctor felt sympathetic towards Loki. "Oh, sure, why not. Where to?"

Loki immediately perked up. "Next, we need to go Asgard. We need to be secretive about it though."

"Where specifically?"

"The royal stables."

"Oh my... Alright, come on."

Jormungand slithered up his father's arm and perched himself on Loki's shoulder. "Where are we going to live now?"

"With your sister. You'll all be a big happy family while I'm gone!"

"And the horse is coming with us?" Jormungand asked with annoyance in his voice.

"Of course!"

"Who else?"

"Fenrir."

"That it?" Jormungand was surprised. He knew Loki had more children than that.

"Basically."

"What about Vali?"

"Don't even mention it," Loki mumbled, shuddering at the memory. "Now hush up. We've got to get Sleipnir."

Loki stepped onto the TARDIS, right after the Doctor. "How do you suppose we're going to get Fenrir?" Jormungand asked.

"I haven't really thought about that," Loki replied. The Doctor set himself to preparing the TARDIS for takeoff, and they were soon on their way back to Asgard.

Meanwhile, the crew members of the_ M. H. Rochester _all stood confused and traumatized in the main control room. "How are we going to get out of here?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The TARDIS landed with the grace of a three-legged, two-ton bilge snipe with a limp. The Doctor and Loki, both very shaken up due to the bumpy ride, exited the TARDIS with ruffled hair and wrinkled clothes. "Now, we just need to find Sleipnir."

"Right," the Doctor mumbled, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "What are we looking for?"

"A dark grey horse with yellow eyes and eight legs," Jormungand hissed before sliding off Loki's arm and slithering about on the floor.

"Don't wander too far from the TARDIS, okay?" Loki said. Jormungand simply nodded and continued slithering around.

"Eight legs?" The Doctor asked, then huffed. "These just get weirder and weirder." Loki rolled his eyes and began checking each individual stable.

The stables were huge, to say the least. There were hundreds of horses, each one strong and noble in appearance. The Doctor walked down large aisles, carefully checking each individual horse for the traits Loki described him with. Just as he was checking a rather stumpy beige horse, he heard Loki happily exclaim. "Sleipnir!" The Doctor walked over toward Loki. "It's alright, Sleipnir, Momma's gotcha, come on..."

"Momma?" The Doctor asked.

"I don't like talking about it," Loki said harshly before gently petting Sleipnir and leading him out of his stable. "You're going to live with your sister. Won't that be fun?" Sleipnir whinnied and nudged Loki with his flat, black-tipped nose. "Heh heh, yeah, you'll like it there."

The two men led the eight-legged horse back to the TARDIS. "Fess up. Why are you referring to yourself as Momma?"

Loki sighed. "Because I'm his mother._ Literally_."

"Care to explain?"

"Quite some time ago, a man came, offering to build a wall around Asgard, with the help of his stallion. He asked for some pretty ridiculous prizes. Where the other gods saw only danger, I saw opportunity, and offered to simply put a short time limit on it. I was wrong, and I had to pay the price for it. To stop the wall from being built before the time limit, I turned myself into a mare and tried to lead the stallion away. Svadilfari was fast, though, much faster than I thought."

Oh, the Doctor thought. He remembered hearing about Svadilfari when he was visiting various points of Loki's past. _I didn't think he was a horse..._

"The pregnancy was very hard to work through, but Frigg and her many nurses helped me through. Of course, as soon as he was born, Odin took him away from me. Now, he slaves away as that fat bastard's steed." Loki grunted angrily. "But that's over now. We're taking you away." Sleipnir whinnied again.

Once Sleipnir was in the TARDIS, Loki picked up Jormungand and placed the snake back on his shoulder. "Now, we... Oh dear."

"What?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, the last one, Fenrir, can't exactly be moved in his current state." Loki scrunched up his face in deep thought. "Can we make a quick trip back to Svartalfheim?"

The Doctor groaned. "What for?"

"I'm going to ask the Necromancer if he has a certain book."

"A_ book_?" The Doctor stomped into the TARDIS. "Alright, come on."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Navigating through the dark tunnels was a lot more confusing than the Doctor remembered it being. Loki, who walked a few paces in front of him, was holding a dimly lit torch. "I certainly hope we find him soon," Loki mumbled. The Doctor merely 'humphed' in reply. The two men continued walking in silence.

While walking, Loki stumbled over something and dropped the torch, making it go out. "Augh!" Loki cried out as he face planted into the floor of the cave.

"Great!" The Doctor cried out angrily. "Now how are we supposed to find that creep?!"

"I don't know!" Loki tried to stand up, but fell back down. "I can't see a thing."

"Try using your magic to make a light," the Doctor suggested while feeling around in the dark for Loki.

"Alright, hold on." Loki sat there, concentrating his seidr, but to no avail. He lit his hands for a few seconds, then watched as it faded away with disappointment. "Sorry. I can't do it," Loki said, ashamed of failing a simple job.

"We're going to be stuck in here until we die," the Doctor angrily mumbled.

The two men could hear footsteps from down the tunnel, but couldn't see anything. "Hello? Who's there?" Loki called out.

"Loki? LOOOOKIIII!" They saw a small purple light fade into existence, then burst into bright and brilliant colours, lighting torches lined along the walls of the tunnel. The Necromancer came running toward Loki with wide open arms. "Oh, I had hoped it was you! I'm so glad you've come to see me again!"

The Necromancer dramatically threw himself forward and lept onto Loki, pinning the unfortunate jotun to the ground. The dark elf gave Loki a bone-crushing hug. "I've waited_ five hundred years _for this moment! Come on, I've got another tea party ready for us and everything!" Without waiting for Loki to reply, the Necromancer pulled him up to his feet. "Oh, and you're not invited," the Necromancer snarkily told the Doctor before pulling Loki after him.

"Wait! I don't have time for a tea party, I-"

"Nonsense! You simply _must_ come! It's rude to keep the hostess waiting." The Necromancer kept a death grip on Loki's wrist, cutting of the circulation to his hand. The Doctor awkwardly followed behind the two. The Necromancer whipped around and slapped the Doctor's arm. "Why are you following us? I told you, you're not invited!"

"Why not?" the Doctor asked. Loki threw him an agitated look and mouthed, _Shut up and get me out of here!_

"Because you took Loki away from me last time, and you're going to do it again if I don't stop you!" The Necromancer let go of Loki's hand just long enough to give the Doctor a hard shove.

"Look, I can't stay for a tea party!" Loki said, trying to knock some sense into the Necromancer.

The Necromancer turned around with his lower lip poking out. "Why not? You promised you would come back soon, and I waited five hundred years. Please stay."

Loki sighed. "I just came to ask if you have a certain book I need."

"We... we can t-talk about the book while having a t-tea party." The Necromancer walked closer to Loki and grabbed his hand. "Please?"

"Fine, but it better be quick," Loki grumbled angrily. The Necromancer squealed in delight and threw his arms around Loki's neck.

"Thank you so much! And your friend still isn't invited." The two men walked back to the Necromancer's lair, with the Doctor following behind.

When they entered the room, the Necromancer shouted, "Welcome back! We've all been waiting. FENWICK!"

The very same skeleton that had served Loki not so long ago was there again, minus the French maid dress. "Yes, Master?" the skeleton asked.

"Get the tea and biscuits ready! They better be done by the time we're back!"

"Back? Where are we going?" Loki asked.

"To my room. I have some presents for you!" The Necromancer gave Loki a wide smile and tugged his arm. "Come on, you'll love them, I just know it!" He was about to drag Loki out of the room until he heard the door open behind them.

The Doctor walked in just in time to stop the Necromancer from giving his gifts to Loki. "What are you doing here?! You're... NOT... INVITED!"

"I go where Loki goes, and I could honestly care less what you think about it," the Doctor said, completely unphased by what the Necromancer said.

The Necromancer huffed and crossed his arms. "Loki, what do you think? Should he come with us?"

"Yes," Loki said, hoping the Necromancer wouldn't loose his cool completely.

The Necromancer turned to face Loki with a look of utter despair and betrayal etched on his face. "Oh... Alright then, I see how it is." He sighed and grabbed Loki's hand to lead him out of the room.

The three men walked through the many useless halls and rooms that the Necromancer had placed within his lair. The Necromancer seemed extremely excited to see Loki's reaction when he got his presents. "I know for a 100% fact that you will absolutely love them!" The Necromancer placed his hands on the two large doors that led to his room to push them open.

_This can't be good_, Loki thought as the Necromancer led him into his room. The Necromancer ran over to a small chest that was pressed up against the wall. He dragged it over towards Loki and the Doctor. "Are you ready for this?" the Necromancer asked, excitement threaded into his voice.

"Yes..." Loki replied slowly.

The Necromancer lifted the lid and threw his hands in the air. "Surprise! I hand-made all twenty of these for you!"

Loki and the Doctor leaned over and peeked into the chest. As soon as they realized what the presents were, the Doctor began laughing hysterically. His sides began hurting from laughing so hard. "Shut up!" Loki angrily growled, ready to choke both the Necromancer and the Doctor. The chest was filled to the brim with colourful, feminine kimonos. Horrible memories from his last visit flooded back into Loki's head.

"Do you like them?" the Necromancer asked, completely oblivious to Loki's seething rage.

"Oh, he loves them!" the Doctor choked out before laughing again. "Come on, Loki, wear the pretty kimono!"

"NO!" Loki screamed before slamming the lid of the chest shut. "I will never wear these disgusting, putrid-" He trailed off as he noticed the Necromancer's lower lip poke out again.

"I... I worked so hard on all of these for you..._ Five hundred years_... I..." the Necromancer sniffed and put his hands on his eyes. "They were so special..."

Loki groaned. "Look, they're pretty and all, but I just don't wear this kind of stuff. I just wanted to ask about that book."

The Necromancer sniffed and took his hands off his eyes. They were red and puffy from his failed attempt to hold back a few tears. "What stupid book do you want?"

"Would you happen to have any on dwarven crafting magicks?"

"Yeah... I think I have one." The Necromancer stomped out of the room.

"That was mean," the Doctor said softly after the Necromancer had left.

"So was all that laughing," Loki rudely retorted.

"Oh, come on. Tell him sorry and take the kimonos."

Loki grumbled inaudibly, and never gave the Doctor a proper response. They left the room and followed the Necromancer. By the time they caught up to the dark elf, he had a large book in his hands. "You can only have the book on one condition."

"Yes?" Loki asked.

"Promise me you'll never come back here again," the Necromancer said, before sniffing again.

_He is so over-dramatic_, Loki thought while mentally rolling his eyes. "I guess I won't be able to finish that tea party with you."

"But you hate me. Why would you want to have a tea party with me?"

Loki threw his hands up in the air in agitation. "I_ never _said I hated you!"

"But you hated my kimonos."

"How did you make such a stupid connection?!" The Doctor coughed loudly, reminding Loki he was supposed to be apologizing. "Look... I don't hate your kimonos. I think they're beautiful."

"Liar," the Necromancer sniffed.

"Am not!" Loki was becoming very agitated. "I'm sorry, I really am. I was just mad at the Doctor's laughing."

The Necromancer sniffed once more then looked up. "Really?"

"Yes, really. Can I have the book now?"

"YES!" The Necromancer threw his arms around Loki's waist and placed his head on Loki's chest. "Oh, Loki, I love you too."

"What?! I just said I liked your kimonos!"

"Riiiight."

The Doctor's cheeks hurt from trying to hold back his laughter. "I think we should go now," he said.

"Already?" the Necromancer asked sadly. "Okay. Promise me you'll be back soon, okay? I mean, sooner than five hundred years. Like... Next week, maybe?"

"I promise," Loki lied again. The Necromancer smiled widely again and refused to stop hugging Loki. "Uh... I need by body, now."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Doctor and Loki were back in the TARDIS with the book, Jormungand, and Sleipnir. Loki flipped through the book, looking for a certain page. "I'm never going back there again as long as I live," Loki said as he flipped the page.

"Neither will I," the Doctor added on as he strolled toward Loki. "Say, whatcha looking for, anyway?"

"A spell that will break Gleipnir," Loki replied.

"Gleipnir?"

"A magic fetter that binds my last son. It is composed of six impossible things. According to what I've read so far, I need to fashion an axe with six more impossible things to break it." Loki closed the book and sighed. "Where am I going to get six impossible things?"

"Um, hell-o? I'm the Doctor! I know all the best places to look. Actually," he said, walking over to the control board of the TARDIS, "I actually know sort of a dump we can rummage through. What do you say?"

"Suits me," Loki said, unsure of where the Doctor was taking him._ I just hope I can hurry up and get those six impossible things. _With a few flicks of levers and a triumphant cry from the Doctor, the TARDIS was whizzing off to the next wonderful place the Doctor had in mind.

**AN: Sorry for the horrible chapter. I can almost guarantee the next one (or two chapters) will rock your socks from now to Ragnarok.**


	10. In a Blink of an Eye

**AN: As if you guys don't already have to wait long enough for the chapters... I'm SO SORRY T.T I just have the worst case of writer's block right now. Like, I think I literally strained myself trying to right this. Warning: there is a LOT of dialogue.**

**I might bump the rating up to M for later chapters. I mean much, much later chapters. I'll keep the ever-so-slightly "censored" version on Wattpad like I've always done, and anything too adult for a PG-13 rating will go on Fanfiction.**

As per the norm, the TARDIS came crashing down, smashing into a nearby building. Luckily for the four on board, no one seemed to notice. For no apparent reason, it seemed to be a particularly busy day in Malibu, California, in the year 2006.

"... And that's why I have 17 identical blue jackets," the Doctor finished as he casually strolled out of the TARDIS and stretched his arms over his head. "Figured that guard on Asgard would want to keep his present, anyway, leaving me with only 16 now. Oh boy, feels nice to be out of there. It's kind of cramped, don't you think?" the Doctor asked jokingly.

Loki rolled his eyes and smirked. "Sure it is." He coughed, then cleared his throat. "So, where exactly are we going?"

"Erm... I'm not quite sure. But that's why I brought this!" The Doctor reached into his jacket and pulled out what looked like a small phone with a small box connected to it with a thin wire. "It's my timey-wimey detector. It's a more portable version, though, so the ding is quieter." He handed it to Loki. "You'll need it."

"Why? What is it?"

"I already told you, it's a timey-wimey detector. It goes ding when there's stuff. Timey-wimey stuff to be specific, and the stuff you're looking for will probably be somewhere within the whole 'wibbly wobbly' spectrum of 'timey-wimey stuff.' Anyway, just point it at random things. The closer you get to a timey-wimey, the louder it dings. Got it?"

"Yes, but how will it help me find six impossible things?" Loki paused, then pursed his lips. "How will I know if I've found an impossible thing? How would you even define that?"

"Malibu is one of the few locations on Earth in which there is a temporal rift. Temporal rifts are basically points in space and time that are weaker than the rest. This can cause all sorts of strange things to wash up from different points of everywhere. I couldn't tell you the exact location of the time rift, but I know for certain it's here in Malibu. If you don't have any luck here, I can take you to Cardiff. I'm not quite sure how to answer your other two questions."

Loki sighed and stared at the strange contraption in his hands. It wasn't like anything he had ever used before. "Alright. I'll get to looking. You're coming with me, right?"

"Oh, I'll just be keeping an eye out for you, don't worry about me." The Doctor comically waved Loki off. "I'm sure you'll do fine."

The jotun rolled his eyes. "Sure you will." Loki was about to walk away when he realized something vital. "How exactly am I supposed to use this?"

The Doctor snatched it away from him and showed him. "You've got to hold this curvy part up to your ear and point the box at timey-wimeys. Pretty simple." The Doctor handed the box back to Loki and gave him a thumbs-up.

With that, Loki set off to find his six impossible items. People were casting him strange glances, but he found it quite easy to ignore them. It only took five minutes of him walking to lose the Doctor entirely within the crowd of people. The timey-wimey detector was leading him down some strange roads, all ending at a place that was closed off by many gates. Behind these gates he could see the tops of the houses of the rich people. Although there seemed to be no way in, Loki's timey-wimey detector was telling him that was the only way to find the temporal rift. _So be it_, he thought.

Loki walked up to one of the tall gates. There seemed to be no way through, but the timey-wimey detector told him this was the fastest way to the temporal rift. After looking around the general area to see if he could find a way through, it all boiled down to one option. Loki sighed and tapped into his unusually short supply of seidr. He was going to have to muster all he could to phase through the gate. The jotun sat down on the clean, green grass and set the timey-wimey detector next to him. His brow furrowed and his eyes shut as he began concentrating his seidr into a spell. He mouthed intricate spells, causing him further stress. After the first minute of trying to make the spell work, he exhausted himself too much to do anything. He collapsed on the ground and gasped for breath. "Oh, I can't do this," he grumbled unhappily between breaths.

After spending a few minutes panting like a dog on the ground, he sat back up and tried the spell again. His mouth moved to the words of the spell in his head. He could feel his seidr gathering up, at a lot slower yet smoother pace than last time. _Patience_, Loki thought. His essence was building up. The spell was almost ready.

When Loki opened his eyes, he found himself transparent. He triumphantly cried out and picked up the timey-wimey detector to make his way through the gate. It felt uncomfortable, the feeling of having something solid pass completely through his body, but it got him where he wanted to be._ I can't believe I did it!, _Loki thought. He had never done anything that complex before. The timey-wimey detector stayed true to the original path and led him through the many paths weaving through the large, expensive houses. Loki found that getting to his intended location was child's play. With minor cloaking and illusion spells, it was unexpectedly easy to pass by cameras, guards, and residents without raising alarms.

He eventually reached an area that had a path surrounded by trees. It lead up to a flat, white house looking over the edge of a cliff. The timey-wimey detector's beep progressively grew faster as Loki approached the house. There were no cars or people in sight, but Loki kept a small cloaking spell on just in case. He found the timey-wimey detector was leading him somewhere seemingly underground, or at least over the edge of the cliff. _The only way to get there without falling off the edge of the cliff would be to go to the bottom of the house. What if it doesn't have a basement? _Loki wasn't so sure he wanted to be at this particular time rift, but he might as well, considering he spent to much time and energy getting himself there.

After walking around the house, he saw that the easiest way in would be to phase through one of the windows. Loki had tried open some of the doors around the large house, but found them all locked. He saw cameras outside the house, but didn't worry about them because of his cloaking spells. The jotun preferred not to use anymore seidr, but he felt driven by the need to release his son. The process of using the spell was noticeably less stressful than last time, simply because of his previous practice. However, because he used so much seidr on both spells, he knew his cloaking spells would wear off soon. All he had to do was see what he could find at the rift then get back to the Doctor as fast as he could.

The spell worked, leaving Loki exhausted yet proud. He felt quite confident that the mission would be successful, since his spell-casting had improved. The house he was in was very open and spacey, and had an overall golden glow about it. He continued looking around the room, admiring the house owner's nice taste in decor. It was only a few minutes into the searching that he found a circular staircase leading downward. He would have descended if it hadn't been for the strange statue standing at the edge of the staircase.

It was a small, deteriorating statue of what looked like a young boy. The head was chipped in half, and it was missing one of its hands. The decay and rot of the statue didn't match the rest of the house, leaving Loki wondering why it was there. Loki reached forward to touch the hand of the statue. Before he could, the hand crumbled off and fell to the ground. He leaned forward and picked up the hand. "Oh dear, um..." A small noise from the bottom of the staircase caught his attention. Loki absent-mindedly placed the hand in one of his pockets as he slowly began his descent.

Luckily for him, the lower part of the house had nobody in it. However, it was also almost pitch-black, and Loki couldn't find a light switch. He would've used his seidr to make a small light if he hadn't already been using so much of it for cloaking and phasing spells._ Maybe I will have to go to Cardiff to get that stuff... _Loki thought as he slowly retreated from the room. He was about to go back up the stairs until he heard the giggling of children. He quickly whipped back around. "Who's there?" he asked. He left the safety and light of the staircase to walk back into the dark room. The pitter-patter of small feet echoed throughout the room.

The mysterious children giggled again. Loki's common sense told him to get out of the room, but his curiosity pushed him further. "Hello?" he asked. Loki could hear the timey-wimey detector beeping so fast it was almost one single continuous beep. He removed his cloaking spell, realizing that was probably stopping them from being able to hear him. They giggled again, and the footsteps approached him. "Is-" Loki had no time to finish his sentence before a tiny stone hand touched his ankle.

Without warning, all the lights in the room flicked on. "Stop!" a voice with a British accent shouted, scanning the room. To the voice's surprise, there was nothing unusual in the room but a small clunky machine and a bunch of cherub statues in the room that hadn't been there previously.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"WHAT!.. Where am I?!" Loki was freaking out. A few seconds ago he was in the basement of that large house, and now he was in the middle of traffic. "Aaah!" He ran between cars to get back onto the side walk. "What... Where is this... How did I get here?!" People stared at him like he was crazy. "I was in that house... I'm here?! How?! WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Loki also realized he dropped his timey-wimey detector in the house._ The Doctor is going to kill me... I cannot risk returning to the house, not to mention I do not have enough seidr left to perform any more phasing spells._ Loki let out a long string of creative curses under his breath as he took off to find the TARDIS.

_How in the world did I get back here? _Loki thought, wondering if it had something to do with the time rift. While on his way back, he walked by a small store with plenty of snacks on display in the window. _Maybe some food will help me think_. The sight of food made Loki go ravenous again. All of the feeding in New York had been enough to stop him from drooling at the very thought of food, but seeing the shop's snacks re-awakened the hunger. He looked around nervously, then slipped into the shop. There were snacks galore. Loki only hoped there was enough room in his pockets to hold it all and to be able to get out without paying. He was about to grab a small bag of cheese popcorn off the shelf until someone frantically grabbed his shoulders from behind. "FINALLY!"

Loki frantically whipped around to see who had grabbed his shoulders. When he saw who his surprise person was, his heart stopped. "Wha... Who... How..."

"DON'T let them TOUCH YOU!" the person yelled. "You'll regret it! 200 YEARS OF WAITING! 200 years of watching and waiting for this moment to come!" His surprise person had a death grip on Loki's shoulders, turning his knuckles white. "It will drive you INSANE!"

"Who are you?!" Loki recoiled and attempted to pry his attacker's hands off his shoulders.

"Oh, please! You know who I am!"

"Then how are you... Did the TARDIS bring you back here?"

"No! The angels! The touch of the angels will send you back in time! They sent me back _200 years ago_!" He dramatically pressed his face up against Loki's. "Don't turn your back, don't look away, and whatever you do..._ Don't blink_." The man twitched, then looked around the shop. "He's coming. I need to go..._ Don't let them touch you_."

"Oi, Loki!" The familiar voice made Loki turn back around. The Doctor was standing at the entrance to the shop. "What are you doing back here?"

"Uh... I was hungry." He turned back around only to see his mysterious attacker was gone.

The Doctor walked up to Loki. "How'd you get back here so fast? Last I saw you disappeared behind that gate."

"Can we talk later? I'm really, really hungry. Say, do you still have that card?"

"I do indeed. Wait outside the shop. I'll get you some snacks."

Loki stood outside the shop and waiting. It was only a few minutes until the Doctor came out with two small grocery sacks in his hand. The jotun walked over to the Doctor and curiously peered inside one of the bags. Without warning, Loki snatched the bag of potato crisps out of the Doctor's sack and, without even bothering to open the bag, shoved the entire thing in his mouth. Despite the fact his seidr was low, he used a little bit of it to widen his mouth enough to shove the entire bag of crisps down his throat and into his stomach.

The Doctor gawked at Loki with an expression of disgust on his face. "Geez, Loki, you're an animal!"

"I'm hungry!" Loki barked before snatching a Hershey's bar out of the sack and eating it whole.

"You're not supposed to eat plastic wrappings! Your stomach probably can't digest that stuff!" the Doctor retorted with sass.

"I don't care!"

"FINE! When you start anally excreting plastic, don't come crying to me!" The Doctor crossed his arms and 'humph'ed in false agitation.

"I won't!" Loki snatched both of the sacks out of the Doctor's hands and began shoving each snack one by one down his throat. The Doctor cringed and turned away so he wouldn't have to watch Loki eat his food in such an unusual fashion.

After Loki was done eating his snacks, he turned back towards the Doctor. "I didn't see much at the rift."

The Doctor grunted. "This was the one with a portion of it hanging over a cliff, wasn't it?" Loki nodded, and the Doctor grunted again. "I was so sure that was the one in the south eastern Asian islands. Hmph. Guess not." The Doctor tapped his chin. "How did you get back so quickly? And where is my timey-wimey detector?"

Loki shifted nervously. "Erm... I'm not entirely sure of the answer to either of those questions."

"Okay then, start with my timey-wimey detector. I made that myself and I want it back."

"I think I dropped it in the room I was in before I was sent back here."

"Sent back here?" The Doctor had a look of confusion etched on his face.

"Yes... The time rift was mostly hanging over a cliff, but I could access a small portion of it by entering the basement of the house on the edge of the cliff. I used some of my phasing spells to enter the house. When I went down the stairs, I couldn't see anything, but I definitely heard some strange noises. I was only down there for a few seconds before I felt something tiny touch my ankle. Before I had time to react, I was transported right into the middle of town."

The Doctor held his knuckle against his chin and wrinkled in brow as he thought deeply on what Loki just told him. "That's odd. Most space junk should just fall into the ocean. Could you describe the strange noises?"

"I heard the giggling of young children and footsteps. I called out and asked who was there, but no one answered."

The Doctor's hearts each skipped a beat. "Did you actually ever see anything unusual?"

"Well... Not really, except for some out-of-place decor."

"What did it look like?" The Doctor's expression of confusion quickly turned to one of grim doom as he walked closer to Loki.

Loki took a small step back. "A decaying statue. Nothing special, really. It-"

"Was it reaching out to touch you? Did it move when you looked away?"

"It didn't move, but it was reaching out. Its hand crumbled and fell off. Actually..." Loki reached into his jacket and pulled it out. "I've got it. I don't know why, I won't be needing an extra hand..."

The Doctor snatched the stone hand away. He mumbled a bit under his breath before handing it back to Loki. "Keep it. You might find it useful enough."

"Why would I find it useful?" Loki didn't want some crummy statue hand.

"Not sure. Now shut up and follow me." The Doctor took a few steps forward, then turned back around. "Where exactly was this house?"

"On the edge of a cliff. It was big, white, and flat-ish looking. It certainly looked very expensive."

"Did it have a long, winding path with trees leading up to it?" The Doctor thought he knew which house Loki was talking about.

"Yes! That's it. How did you know-"

"Of course it had to be _his_ house..." The Doctor murmured. "Come on, we're taking the TARDIS. It'll be much quicker. Loki followed with a very confused expression etched on his face.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When they exited the TARDIS, Loki saw that they were indeed in the very same house he had visited not moments ago. "How did you know this was the house?"

"Because I know who lives here. Actually, I knew his parents better, but that's beside the point." The Doctor turned around and held out his hand. "Did you bring a torch along?"

"No."

"I asked you in the TARDIS! Oh, whatever, I'll get it myself. You'll need one too."

The Doctor soon exited the TARDIS with two torches in hand. He flicked one on and handed it to Loki. "Where was this room you were in?"

"Over here somewhere," Loki replied as he took the lead. The staircase wasn't far from the windows at all. When he reached it, he was surprised to see the statue was no longer at the edge of the stairs. Instead, it was positioned so it looked like it was about to start walking down the stairs. "It... It moved..."

"Not good," was all the Doctor muttered before observing the statue. He could see it had no hands, therefore wasn't a threat. He turned back to Loki and grabbed the jotun's shoulders. "Loki, can you promise me something?"

Loki was confused, but he complied. "Sure. What is it?"

"If you happen to come across a stone statue of an angel, do not turn around, do not look away, and no matter what happens, no matter what you do... Don't blink."

"Why? What's so special about this statue?" Loki immediately thought about the crazy man in the shop.

"This-and possibly some other statues around here-are called 'Weeping Angels'. Whenever you look at them, they are stone. When you look away, they become something else entirely. It's called 'quantum-locking' and it's their defense mechanism." The Doctor sighed. "They are some of the most cold-hearted killers in existence. When they touch you, they'll send you back in time and feed off of your memories and all of the moments of life you'll never experience. They're creatures of the abstract and are extremely dangerous."

"Moving statues?" Loki raised an eyebrow. "Sending you back in time? That explains the crazy man in the snack store.."

"Crazy man in a snack store?"

"Yes. I met a man... Well, I met _me_, but he wasn't me, but..." Loki huffed in frustration. "He looked like me and he sounded like me but he was talking nonsense about not letting them touch me."

"Then that was probably you from the past, which means at some point in time during today you _will_ be touched by an angel." The Doctor shuddered. "It shouldn't be _that bad_, though, since you're jotun and you'll outlive the angel's touch anyway. You and I will probably meet up elsewhere later on today."

"I don't know. He-erm, I-sounded pretty upset about it. The angel sent me-him, no, me-back in time 200 years ago."

The Doctor stood there, thinking deeply about what could be done about the angels. "As much as I'd like to leave to prevent that from happening, I _can't_ just let a bunch of Weeping Angels roam around Malibu."

"Could I stay in the TARDIS?"

"No. Attempting to take on the angels with only one person is an utterly _horrible_ idea. I've got an idea, but I don't think you'll like it too much."

"What is it?"

Instead of answering, the Doctor turned his torch on and descended down the stairs. When he reached the bottom, he found the torch was unnecessary since the light was already on. "Hmph. Didn't you mention something about not being able to see when you got down here?" When there was no reply, the Doctor turned around to see Loki standing there with his eyes squeezed shut and his hand pinching the bridge of his nose. "Uh... Loki? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Loki mumbled as he squeezed the bridge of his nose a little bit harder.

"Are you sure?" the Doctor asked.

"I'm _fine_," Loki repeated, slightly exaggeration his annoyance.

Loki finally pulled his fingers off his nose and looked around the room. His vision was partially blurred due to his head ache, but he could see well enough to notice there were lots of small metal objects scattered around the tables and desks of the room. He absent-mindedly walked up to one and saw a particularly sharp piece of shrapnel laying on it. Without thinking about it, he reached over and grabbed it. _I wonder how long his alien body could handle me stabbing it_, Loki thought as he turned the shrapnel over in his hand. His head ache throbbed, but he chose to ignore it in favor of gazing at the metal. Loki clutched so tight in his hands that it gave him a small cut. Realizing what he was doing, Loki dropped the piece of metal back on the table with a soft grunt.

The head ache subsided moments after. Loki walked over to the Doctor to observe what he was doing. "What happened?"

"It looks like someone tore these wires," the Doctor mentioned. "I don't suppose they'd do it without having a good purpose. Maybe..." The Doctor began working on trying to fix the wires in the small box. His leather gloves had small black marks on them from light shocks, but other than that, the actual fixing process was easy for the Doctor.

While waiting for the Doctor, Loki decided to more closely observe his surroundings. Now that his vision was no longer blurred, he could see the metal objects scattered across the tables were tools and small machines of all different sorts. He noticed the timey-wimey detector was still laying where he had dropped it and decided to go pick it up. "Doctor, I've got your wibbly-wobbly thing."

"Do you now?" He looked up and held out his hand. "Thanks." Loki shrugged. Paying no mind to his companion's reaction, the Doctor placed the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey detector on the ground next to him and continued working on the small silver box. "Don't you find it odd that the pods lined along the wall are missing?"

"Pods?" Loki looked around. "I didn't know any were supposed to be here."

"Yeah, for his suits." The Doctor paused and huffed. "Eh, he probably just keeps them put up somewhere else."

"Suits? Doctor, who li-"

"Ah ha! There we go! I think I fixed it," the Doctor said gleefully. "Now, all I have to do it flick this little switch here and it should work." The Doctor nearly had a heart attack after what happened next.

"Who are you two and how did you shut me down?!" a British voice shouted.

"Woah! Hold on, we didn't do anything!" The Doctor immediately countered. The voice sent Loki into a state of hysteria. He nearly collapsed against a table and his head darted around the room in an attempt to find the source of the voice. "Actually... You sound kind of familiar."

"Answer me or I'll have you torn to shreds!" the voice shouted, clearly panicking as much as Loki had.

"We didn't do anything! We're here to deal with your Weeping Angel infestation! We're not going to hurt anyone!" He quickly pulled out the psychic paper. "If you can read this then you really need too!"

"Is that what those small cherubs were?!" the voice replied, calming down a bit, but still freaking out.

"Yes! That's exactly what they were! Now please... Let us help you." The Doctor lowered his voice, hoping it would help the mysterious voice and his companion stop panicking so much.

"But... How did you get in? And those cherubs? How did they move? I-"

"Let me explain. It's a lot to explain, so pull up a chair... Hold on. Where exactly are you?"

"Answer my questions first."

The Doctor reluctantly complied. He folded his arms across his chest as he began to explain. "This house was placed on top of a temporal rift, which basically means strange things are bound to wash up here now and again. I'm a specialist from Torchwood that takes care of things like this. I got in with my... Erm, transportation machine." The Doctor pushed his half-moon glasses up on his face. "Are you going to show yourself to us now?"

"That's not nearly enough information," the voice countered without hesitation.

"Well then, I'm just going to have to clear out this infestation without your permission then, won't I?"

"There are so many guns and security cameras installed around the house you won't be able to take another breath before you are nothing more than a pile of ash."

"Oooh! I'm so scared of a disembodied voice!" The Doctor spat sarcastically. "Come on, Loki. Let's just take care of those angels and get out of here."

"Wait!" the voice cried out.

"What?" the Doctor asked as he returned his arms to his sides.

"Why exactly do you need to get rid of these angel statues? I'm sure the guns would be more than sufficient for dealing with them," the voice answered.

"Oh really? Maybe you should look around the house for some angels and test your theory."

"I won't have to look. Your companion there has been staring at quite a few for a while now."

The Doctor immediately whipped around to see Loki standing completely still. As he walked toward the jotun, he understood his companion's sudden quietness and lack of interest in conversation; he had indeed been staring at a trio of small, black cherubs all bundled together and reaching out toward Loki. "How long have they been there?" the Doctor murmured sotto voce.

"A little after you two began arguing," Loki replied in an equally soft tone. His voice was laced with minor, hardly traceable amounts of fear.

Without warning, a bright light lit up the whole room. A repulsor beam had been fired at the small bundle of cherubs. To the mysterious voice's dismay, the angels remained untouched and unharmed. "What? That should've done the job, they should be dead..."

"See? I told you that wouldn't work." The Doctor placed his hands on his hips, not once taking his eyes off the cherubs. "Anyway, we _really_ shouldn't be arguing, especially if there are more of them around the house."

"There are two larger angels upstairs," the voice replied.

"Then don't stop looking at them; we'll be up there with you in a minute, as soon as we figure out what to do with these cherubs."

"I'm not upstairs," the voice began.

"What? Where are you then?" the Doctor asked, daring to take his eyes off the cherubs since his companion was already doing a fine job of staring at them.

"The computer system. I am JARVIS, the AI system that runs this house."

"That's where I know you from! I met you in New York in August 19, 2012! You were the voice I heard after Tony and Loki left the room-"

"Shouldn't we be dealing with the angels?!" Loki snapped, making the Doctor jump.

The Doctor shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, you're right. How strong is the door leading into here? The cherubs aren't near as strong as the adult angels."

"They were meant to withstand up to 150 pounds in weight," JARVIS replied.

"That means..." The Doctor was silent for a moment, working out the math in his head. "Yeah, that should easily contain at least seven cherubs. How many are in the room?"

"Only those three," JARVIS replied.

"Good. That means we can walk out of here backwards while keeping our eyes on them." The Doctor reached over to Loki and grabbed his arm. "I'll stare at the angels and you lead me to the door, okay?"

Loki nodded. "Alright. Telll me when you're ready."

The Doctor had his eyes locked on to the angels. "Ready." The two walked over to the door and exited the room, making absolutely sure to shut the door behind themselves. "Well then, that was far less tension-filled than I thought it would be."

"So, how do you propose we lead those other two adult angels out of Stark's house?" Loki asked. The Doctor faced with him with an expression of confusion.

"How did you know this was his house?"

"You just said it earlier. Missing suits, meeting the AI in New York..."

"Missing suits?" JARVIS asked.

"Yeah. Last time I was here, Tony kept his Iron Man suits down in that very lab."

"Tony doesn't have any suits," JARVIS said matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean 'he doesn't have suits'?" The Doctor asked. Even Loki was quite confused.

"I mean Tony really hasn't bought any suits," JARVIS replied.

"I don't... Oh yeah, it's only 2006," the Doctor remembered. "He didn't build the suit until, what, 2008?"

"What are you talking about?" JARVIS asked.

"Doctor, the angels..." Loki said, getting nervous as the idea of being touched. Not only did he want these things gone as soon as possible, but he wanted to get out of Tony Stark's house.

"Right, right, the angels... How many more are in the house?" the Doctor asked JARVIS.

"Two adult angels are wandering around here, and I think I saw one outside, but only briefly."

The Doctor sighed. "We need to find a way to lure them outside of the house and either get them to stare at eachother permanently or push them off the cliff." He tapped his chin. "Or I could push Loki off the cliff."

Loki paled and glared at the Doctor. The Doctor immediately held his hands up in defense. "Hey, it would fix everything much quicker! Since you met yourself from the past, pushing you off the edge of a cliff would cause a paradox, therefore 'poisoning' the weeping angels!"

"No! There is no way in Niflhel you are ever going to convince me to throw myself off a cliff!" Loki folded his arms across his chest. "Not doing it."

The Doctor sighed. "Fine. We're going to have to get rid of them the hard way. You know, the way in which you will most likely be touched by an angel." Seeing Loki refused to change his mind, the Doctor simply rolled his eyes. "Where in the house are the other two angels?"

"One of them is in a sitting room adjacent to this one, and the other one is upstairs," JARVIS said.

"Alright, then." The Doctor stood with his hands on his hips, thinking of any possible ways to rid the house of the angels. "I've really got no clue how we're going to do this."

"Maybe we could use the same method we used to leave the basement downstairs," Loki said. "We could just keep an eye on the angels and back out of the room, blinking occasionally to bring them closer."

"What would we do once we get to the edge of the cliff? Are we just going to walk on air?" The Doctor huffed. "We still have to get rid of those cherubs downstairs. Loki, do you think you can use your seidr to transport them there somehow?"

"No, I used most of it trying to get in here," Loki replied.

The Doctor murmured angrily under his breath. He was about to say something again when JARVIS let out an alarming cry. "Doctor!"

The two men immediately turned to face the doorway to the room adjacent to them. In the doorway stood a Weeping Angel with an outstretched hand, waiting to grasp an unsuspecting victim. Loki gasped and walked closer to it. "This is what they look like?" He cautiously approached it. "Freaky. This one looks a lot healthier than the one I saw on the stairs."

"The one on the stairs?" The Doctor asked. His eyes widened and his hearts stopped when he remembered the angel they had both seen while coming in the house. "The angel on the stairs! Where did it go?!"

Loki whipped around, panicking. "It's _gone_?! Where did it-" In his moment of weakness, he had taken his eyes off the angel.

The Doctor turned back around as soon as his companion got quiet. "No, LOKI!" His companion was gone and the angel had moved forward. For the second time that day, Loki had been touched by a Weeping Angel.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Loki stood on the edge of a cliff, his heart racing erratically. "What the... Did I get...?" His speech faded as he observed his surroundings. He was on the very same cliff that Tony's house had been on, except Tony's house wasn't there. Loki began shivering with fear as the reality of what happened to him settled in._ I'm stuck here... For 200 years... _Loki fell to his knees. _What do I do with myself for 200 years?_

He sat there on the edge of the cliff, unsure of what to do. _Can't the Doctor just travel back in time to pick me up? _He pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them._ I guess I'll just have to wait here_.

And wait he did. For what felt like hours, Loki sat there, in that exact spot, waiting for the madman in the blue box. He watched and waited for some help to arrive, but no help came. He dangled his feet over the cliff and overlooked the ocean, gazing at the waters as the sun went down. Still no help. The moon rose proudly into the night, dominating the sky. Loki decided he was tired of waiting for a man that clearly wasn't going to show up.

The jotun decided to look around for a place he could stay the night. He could continue waiting tomorrow. He stood up and dusted himself off as he walked toward a distance source of light. It was a very small light, surrounded by what seemed to be people. As Loki approached his, the crunching of his feet on the grass alerted the people around the fire. "Hey! What are you doing here?"

Loki approached the men around the campfire. It was a bunch of travelers of some sort. "Please excuse my interruption, but I'm terribly lost. Can you men point out the direction of Malibu?"

"Malibu? What in tarnation is a Malibu?" one of the men asked.

"Malibu is the city close to here... Isn't it? This is California, right? Where all the rich people are?" Loki was beginning to think the angel brought him to a different cliff.

"There ain't no 'Malibu' 'round here. We ain't rich either. Just forty-niners trying ta get rich." He paused and took a sip from something out of a tin can. "Your family leave you behind?"

"No... Where am I?"

"California... Where did ya think you were?" He coughed and hacked a glob of spit onto the ground before taking another sip out of the tin. "You're here for the gold like the rest of us, ain't ya?"

"No, I just... I'm lost. Really, really lost." Loki stood there with his arms loosely wrapped around his waist. "Where is the nearest town or village?"

The man snorted. "You're a foreigner aren't ya?"

Loki nodded and sat down. "More foreign than you could possibly hope to comprehend." He sighed and brushed some loose hair behind his ear. "Can you tell me what year it is?"

" '52."

"Erm, you're going to have to be more specific than that," Loki said.

The man raised an eyebrow. "Now how on earth did a foreigner like you get here and not even know what year it is?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Loki replied, absent-mindedly pulling some grass blades out of the ground. "Is is 1752 or 1852? Either way, it's about 50 years off of how long I thought I would be here."

"It's 1852." The man gave him a suspicious look over the top of his tin as he took a sip of his drink. "Where are you from?"

Loki shook his head and chuckled. "Damn. That's about 150 years. Well, I guess that's a good thing." He looked up to face the man sitting next to the fire. "If I told you where I'm from or how I got here you would call me crazy."

The man looked back at his friends all sitting around the fire, then turned back to Loki. He leaned over and whispered. "Don't worry, Ah've seen some pretty unexplainable things before. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but Ah know what I seen."

"Uh... You know, I think I'm just going to find someone that can help me," Loki said, standing up and brushing the back of his pants off. "Well, it was fun, but I need to find somewhere to stay for the night."

"Wait!" The man stood up after him. "Where do you think yer going? Ain't safe to travel the wilds at night."

"To someplace where I can figure this problem out. And possibly get a roof over my head." He scratched the back of his head and began walking off. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight!" The man called out, then scoffed as he turned back to the fire. "Weirdo. He's gon' be dead by morning."

Loki strolled back to the edge of the cliff. _What if I took the Doctor's advice?_, he thought as he approached the edge of the cliff. _Would the paradox even work now that I've been sent back in time? Or would it only affect angels in this time period? _He sat himself down on the edge of the cliff and pulled the broken Weeping Angel's hand out of his pocket. "I don't even need this thing," he muttered. He held it behind his head, ready to toss it into the ocean, before he stopped himself.

_Moving stone_. The thought made him place the little hand in his lap._ The flesh of a stone creature_._ Hmph_. He laid his back on the grass and held the little hand up in the air._ I think I've just found my first impossible item_. Loki chuckled jovially. "Finally, some good news." He put the hand back in his pocket before continuing his mental debate as to whether he should throw himself off the cliff or not.

_There aren't any angels in this year, not any that I've seen... _Loki pursed his lips and his brow furrowed._ I don't know what else to do... Will I still be alive after the angels have even died? _It was suicide, but Loki didn't know what else to do. He couldn't imagine being stuck on a planet and being surrounded by humans for 150 years.

Loki's heart pounded as he stood up on the edge of the cliff. If this worked, the paradox killed the angels and saved Malibu. If not, he was just another dead body at the bottom of the ocean. Loki edged a little bit closer._ Here goes nothing... _He lost confidence and was about to take a step back until his left foot slipped, sending Loki tumbling over the edge. He thrashed about as he plummeted toward his death._ This is it_. Loki took one last look at the ocean before closing his eyes and bracing for impact.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_How in the world did I get back here? _Loki thought, wondering if it had something to do with the time rift. While on his way back, he walked by a small store with plenty of snacks on display in the window. _Maybe some food will help me think_. The sight of food made Loki go ravenous again. All of the feeding in New York had been enough to stop him from drooling at the very thought of food, but seeing the shop's snacks re-awakened the hunger. He looked around nervously, then slipped into the shop. There were snacks galore. Loki only hoped there was enough room in his pockets to hold it all and to be able to get out without paying. He was about to grab a small bag of cheese popcorn off the shelf until the intense wave of deja vu hit him like a hammer. He looked down at the bag of cheese popcorn on the shelf and stared at it._ Haven't I done this before_? Memories flooded back to him. Loki dropped the bag of popcorn on the floor and stepped back in shock. He was about to run out of the store until someone grabbed him harshly from behind.

"You did it! Ha ha, you really did it, you little trickster, you!" The Doctor cackled like a madman while hugging Loki from behind. "See, I _told_ you getting yourself killed would kill the angels!"

"Did it reset the time, too?" Loki asked.

"Yes! Heh heh, guess if I remembered to mention that little bit, you would've been a bit more willing to go through with it, wouldn't you?"

"No," Loki admitted. "I only did it because I will take desperate measures to avoid having to stay with _humans_ for a long time."

"Yeeaaah, sure you did." The Doctor laughed and patted Loki's arm. "Come on, then. Sorry you didn't get what you were looking for."

"Hmm? Oh, the impossible item?" Loki smiled and pulled the broken Weeping Angel's hand out of his pocket. "The flesh of stone. This would definitely work."

The Doctor held the little angel hand. "If you say so. Only five more to go. C'mon." The Doctor and Loki exited the store and began walking toward the TARDIS. "Actually, I think I know the perfect place to go next..." He gave Loki a mischevious grin.


End file.
